by Melody Anne
“I … uh …” She couldn’t complete her thought. Or even start it.
“Why not finish it, Elena? Neither of us is seeing anyone else right now. As the newspapers might say, a good time could be had by all.”
She almost threw off her covers and held out her arms to him. But the logical side of her knew this had to be a new twist on the game-playing between them.
Was he going for payback? Would he get her all hot and bothered and then turn and walk away? She’d deserve it. But there was a big difference between the two of them. He had an ego the size of Alaska, and hers was fragile. She didn’t handle rejection well. She definitely hadn’t done so when she was ten years old or when she was twenty, and she wasn’t that much stronger now.
Her fears gave her the strength to stiffen her spine and throw him a withering look.
“I don’t think so, Tyler. Yes, maybe I do feel … some small glimmer of something when I’m around you, but not enough to compromise myself.”
He smiled — the man actually smiled as he leaned back just a little bit.
“You’ll change your mind, Elena. I guarantee it,” he said before straightening up. But only for a moment. Instead of walking out her door, he sat down on the side of her bed.
“What are you doing?”
She was clutching the blankets so tightly now that she knew her fingers were going to cramp up at any minute. But it was worth it. It kept her from reaching for him.
“Just giving you something to think about, Elena.”
He leaned down and gripped her head. Before she was able to utter a word, his mouth covered hers. Tyler traced her lips and then dived in as if he owned her.
Each stroke of his tongue sent tiny messages throughout her body, begging her to let him give her what she really wanted. The voice inside her head telling her that this was an awful idea was growing further and further away.
And then he released her.
“Self-sacrifice doesn’t do you any good, Elena. You will hurt all night — I guarantee it.”
He rose up and strode from her room.
It took her a good half hour before she could control the ache that he’d left behind. He was right. She was going to hurt the rest of the night, and maybe for a lot longer. She turned off the lights, then tossed and turned for the next hour.
Then a message came in on her cell phone, the one she’d told him was off, but was merely on vibration mode.
I’ll pick you up at six Monday evening — for work. Sweet dreams.
She wanted to toss her phone across the room and shatter it. She hated him, yes — for sure it was hate. She wanted to go and yell at Piper for letting the man in. But she decided against that.
She would prove Tyler wrong and sleep like a baby, she told herself.
No such luck.
Chapter Twenty-One
By Monday morning, Elena was feeling grouchy, to say the least, from lack of sleep. She hadn’t heard another word from Tyler, but that didn’t mean the man hadn’t been on her mind constantly from the time he’d walked out of her bedroom a day and a half earlier.
She’d even gone running on Sunday, jogging through a nearby park until her legs were weak and she barely had the energy to step into the shower and wash the sweat off. And she still hadn’t managed to nod off for very long.
Yes, she wanted him, and she was sure that much was obvious. But a long line of women had to be lusting after Tyler Knight. Or at least interested enough in his money to try to lure him into the sack. Why couldn’t he just run off and play with one of those little bimbos?
That thought sent a pang right through her, though she fought to convince herself that she really did want that easy way out of this mess. She just didn’t want to hear about it or see it.
Amid all her work on legal briefs and on contracts — she was going at it all double-time — she wondered what they were meeting about tonight. If he planned to monopolize all her evenings through the course of this project, she was going to be very, very cranky by the time it ended. She had to struggle through a boatload of paperwork during the day, and everyone deserved private time. Yes, her company got to bill him for every hour he was with her, but that didn’t change how much she actually made, and it wasn’t much, not when she was paying off her student loans.
When Elena dashed home, she changed into something a little more comfortable — this time it was slacks, because there was no way she’d wear another skirt around that guy, and she put on a thick sweater, which was making her too warm already. By the time she did that her doorbell was already ringing. Would the pressure never let up?
She answered it reluctantly, expecting to find Tyler standing there. She was faced instead with a stranger wearing a suit.
“May I help you?”
“I’m here to give you a ride, Ms. Truman,” the man answered.
“I’m not sure I need a ride,” she said slowly.
“Mr. Knight sent me.”
The guy didn’t look like a serial killer, but how was she to know what a serial killer actually looked like? Even people with law degrees weren’t always that clued in. And she rarely touched criminal law.
“Can you wait out there for a moment?” she asked. He nodded and she shut her door before moving over to her cell phone and sending out a quick text.
Tyler immediately responded that, yes, it was his driver, and that he, Tyler, looked forward to seeing her. Well, she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him.
Gritting her teeth, Elena grabbed her purse, went back to her front door, and followed the driver to the black SUV waiting at the curb.
When the driver pulled up to the gate to Tyler’s house, she was instantly tense all over again. He’d neglected to tell her the meeting was at his place. How convenient for him!
It wouldn’t do her any good to yell at his driver. The man was just doing his job. But she’d give Tyler an earful when she got inside.
But as the driver let her in through the front door, she rethought that. What good would it do? Tyler was her client, and no matter where he wanted the meetings, she had to deal with it — and they both knew it. Why waste her breath?
“Mr. Knight can be found this way,” the driver said before leading her back into the kitchen.
The freaking kitchen? Who in this world held business meetings in the kitchen? She really didn’t want to go in there.
Of course her eyes were immediately drawn to the damn kitchen island the second they stepped into the room. When she met Tyler’s gaze after a moment of staring at that miserable spot, she couldn’t miss the victory in his eyes. He knew exactly what she was thinking about.
Despite her outrage at what the guy was pulling, she felt her body respond, her nipples instantly hardening — thank goodness for the thick sweater — and her core heating. On top of that, her stomach was performing somersaults. And Tyler was wearing an apron and standing at the stove! Billionaires did that kind of thing?
“I wasn’t under the impression that we’d be meeting at your place, Mr. Knight,” she said grimly.
“This worked out easier for me. I’ve been running and gunning all day and the paperwork was here at my place. I’m sorry I had to send my driver over. I’d planned to pick you up myself.”
He didn’t look at all apologetic.
“You’re a very busy man,” she told him. “Your driver was very polite, at least.”
“That’s good to hear. Tony has worked with my family for a lot of years.”
Idle chitchat. That’s what this was. The thing about it, though, was that she could feel her nerves lessening as she spoke with Tyler. Besides, it was hard to feel nerves when the man was standing there in a silly apron with the motto Builders Only Use Hard Wood.
“Do you always wear aprons?” she asked with a semblance of a smile.
“Only when I want to get a real smile.”
She tried to wipe the smile away but it grew instead. Damn him!
“It does smell delicious in here. I’m
sure you have something planned for later, so we ought to get business out of the way quickly.”
The look he gave her made it more than obvious that she was the focus of his menu. Her stomach jumped again.
“My only plans tonight are to begin going over some paperwork,” Tyler said before turning back to whatever he had cooking on the stove.
“It would be very helpful if I could study up on the paperwork before we go over it.”
“I prefer going over things together. Get used to it.”
She sat in silence for several moments, irritated that his personality could so easily turn on a dime. One moment he was almost pleasant. The next he was acting like a Neanderthal.
Several moments passed and Elena began to grow restless. She wasn’t the kind of person who sat around doing nothing. It wasn’t in her personality.
“Do you need any help?” She was in no way obligated to offer help, but doing something had to be better than sitting there twiddling her thumbs.
“I’d love help. Want to cut up the salad vegetables? They’re all in the produce drawer in the fridge.”
Elena got up, moved over to the refrigerator, and, pulling out the veggies, went back to the island. There was no way she was going to stand right beside him as he worked at the stove. She thought about moving back to the sitting side, but that would make it too obvious how much being near him affected her, and that was something she couldn’t allow.
Tyler pulled out a cutting board and knife and reached around her to place it on the island, his body brushing against hers as he paused there for a few seconds too long.
“I’ve got it,” she finally whispered, hating the huskiness in her tone.
“Thanks,” he replied, and he stroked along her side with one hand before he withdrew.
Elena’s fingers were a bit shaky as she began tearing lettuce. It was safer than cutting at the moment. Anything that required expert knife skills wouldn’t be wise at this point. She’d get the trembling under control first.
Tyler finished cooking right as she got done putting the salad together, and then she insisted on helping to set out the plates and silverware at his kitchen table. It was at that point that she realized how domestic the scene appeared.
“You realize this isn’t a date, right?” she said as the two of them began eating their meal.
Tyler looked up, finished chewing, and then smiled. “What makes you say that?”
“This is work, Mr. Knight.” She stressed his name to get the point across. “And I am billing you for every minute I’m here.”
“We’ll see,” he said before looking down at his plate and picking up another forkful.
“I want to be very clear. You are being billed for my time. So if you want to waste an hour cooking and eating, you should be aware of that.” He needed to get this. She needed to say it to remind herself.
“I’m not worried about it, Elena.”
Elena wanted to shake the man. She had no idea what he was thinking, but she knew the way he expected the evening to end — with her in his bed. She would do everything in her power to prevent that from happening.
She barely tasted the food she hadn’t wanted in the first place, and she gulped down her wine a little too quickly in her desperation to do something to occupy her hands.
“When would you like to go over the papers?” she said about fifteen minutes into the meal. She just couldn’t eat any more of it. Her nerves were fried.
“As soon as we’re finished with dinner,” he told her, and he was taking his sweet time.
“I don’t want to be out too late. I have a case I need to work on tomorrow,” she said, hoping he’d respect that.
“What are you working on besides this project with me?”
“It’s nothing you’d be interested in,” she told him.
“You’d be surprised by what I’m interested in,” he said, and he put down his fork.
She thought for a moment about refusing to answer his question, but he obviously was going to keep pushing her, so she leaned back with her glass of wine and found herself opening up.
“The work I’m doing tomorrow is pro bono. The case involves a little girl — only five years old. Her stepfather was beating her, and that apparently went on for six months. Her mother worked two jobs and didn’t realize what was happening. The girl has been in foster care for almost a year now, and the mom has jumped through a lot of hoops to get her back. She divorced her husband, has taken parenting classes, and has more than proved that she loves her daughter.”
“Then will she get the girl back?”
“I think so. It depends on the judge. I hope so. I’ve only been an attorney for three years but I volunteered for a children’s advocacy agency all through college, and I think I can usually tell when the parents are lying. I honestly don’t think this mother is. I hope she gets to reunite permanently with her daughter. Despite all the child has been through, she’s such a ray of sunshine. She’s a sweet, smart little girl.”
“It sounds as if you’ve gone through a lot of emotional cases,” he said, and she was surprised to hear something like sympathy in his tone.
“Yes. But it’s been worth it. I think I really do make a difference.”
“There are several sides to you, aren’t there, Elena?” he said before making sure he had her full attention. “Just like there are many sides to me.”
His comment derailed what she’d been about to say. Who was this man, really? She knew she couldn’t be wrong about him. She knew the old saying about a man being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and that was Tyler Knight. He was the complete opposite of her.
Sure, he’d lived in a modest home for several years with his guardians, but his inheritance had been sitting there waiting for him to turn eighteen, and when he had, the playboy lifestyle had been on full throttle.
“I’ve seen one side of you — not the best one — plastered all over the gossip rags,” she finally said.
“We all have a story. You didn’t bother to find mine out. You just assumed I was an asshole. Do you still think that of me?”
Damn! This man didn’t pull his punches. She didn’t know how to reply to that question. Should she just be honest with him? Or was this all part of his rich-man games? If only she had a crystal ball.
“I guess I would say yes and no.”
Tyler sat there for a moment and then he surprised her when he laughed, true merriment shining from him.
“I enjoy your honesty, Elena. It’s refreshing, especially in the world I live in, where everyone besides you is constantly kissing my ass,” he said. “Let’s move to the living room and finish this.”
Without waiting for her assent, he stood up, grabbed the bottle of wine, and began moving. Elena was left with no choice but to follow him. She was almost eager to see what was coming next. How perverse of her, she thought.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tyler settled down on the couch and put a bottle of wine on the coffee table in front of him. Where would Elena choose to sit, he wondered? But he knew.
She looked at the couch, and then over at the chair, which was about as far from him as she could get. Predictably, she began heading toward the chair.
“Join me on the couch. We have documents to look over,” he told her, and she turned toward him with a look almost akin to fear. “I’m not going to bite, Elena,” he said before smiling. “Not unless you want me to.”
That comment earned him a contemptuous glare as she walked stiffly toward him and sat so tightly against the arm of the couch that not even a wisp of air could slide between her and the leather. He made her nervous. And he liked that.
“Do you really want to know, Elena, why I asked you to be one of my attorneys?” He scooted closer to her. She gulped from her wineglass. “Maybe you should slow down with that.”
“I have a driver and I’m an adult,” she said, taking another drink.
He could mention that she was also on the clock. He chose
not to.
“Yes, you most certainly are an adult,” he said instead.
“You were going to tell me why you really hired me,” she told him, her eyes wary.
“I think about you day and night. I think about the taste of you, about touching you, teasing you, finally making love …”
Her eyes dilated. Good. She was more responsive than ever before. But the problem with his words were the way they were affecting his own body. He shifted on the couch as his jeans became far too uncomfortable.
“I haven’t been able to work at all lately, and that’s not good — I have a lot of important projects underway. But I can’t focus on anything but you.” Tyler stretched out his hand and rested it on her thigh.
He didn’t move his fingers, just let them stay there, let her adjust to his touch. He knew he could take her, knew she would like it. But he wanted her to beg him, to need him. She’d rejected him, and now he wanted her pleading and begging instead.
“Why me?” she finally whispered.
“Why not you?”
“I can’t think right now. You’re confusing me,” she said, setting down her empty wineglass and holding her head in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” Was this another act she was putting on?
“I think I drank too much.”
Tyler sighed with frustration. He never should have brought the wine to the table. This wasn’t how he had planned on his night ending.
“Is that an excuse, Elena, or are you running from me again?” he asked, his voice probably less than pleasant.
“I don’t have to run from you, Tyler. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want to,” she snapped.
“And you want to make love to me.”
She held her head back up so she could glare at him. “It must be nice to be so confident.”
“Why play modest when I know who I am?”
Her sweet lips opened in an exasperated expression. Tyler wanted to close his around them and end this debate, but he’d never before taken a woman to bed who wasn’t fully accountable for her actions.