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“I don’t feel guilty, and I have no idea why you think I do.”
“You’ve been lying to me since we met, and whether you want to admit it or not, you still are.”
If I don’t stop this now, I’m not sure how far it will go. My raging hormones aren’t doing me a lick of good. Ugh! I don’t need to think about him and licking in the same train of thought.
“Look, Tyler. I told you I screwed up. I’m sorry I got you hot and bothered and walked out. I’m trying to move forward now, and I won’t do anything like that again. Can’t you please request another attorney, one who can give you more time?”
“No. I think you’re the most qualified person for what I have in mind.”
The man has no qualms, no interest in hiding how he feels or what he expects. Yes, this is a clear invasion of privacy, of my professionalism, of my life, but my boss won’t care. And what I did with Tyler already — more precisely, what I let him do to me — doesn’t exactly put me in the best light.
It takes me a minute to find my voice. “This is insane, Tyler. You have to realize that.”
“I don’t think so. I like what you started in the bar,” he says with a wolfish smile. “And I want to keep on playing. Once you start something involving others, the decision to say when it ends is no longer yours alone.”
“What do you expect from me?”
He stands up very slowly, and I forget to breathe when he moves toward me and stands at the foot of my bed, all six-plus feet of him, all breathtaking, all intoxicating male. He leans down, and I scoot back, using the precious few inches I have.
“I expectusto see this through,” he says. His voice arouses me in ways I didn’t know were possible.
“Why?” I gulp. He throws me a look I can’t quite interpret, and I’m silent for several heart-stopping moments. Finally, I take in a much-needed breath of air.
“You don’t see it, do you?” he says. Now it’s my turn to be silent and take a breath. When I speak, I’m not sure he can hear me, my voice is so quiet.
“See what?” He walks around to the side of my bed and gets even closer. Damn, he smells incredible.
“You’re mine, Olivia. I’ve wanted you from the moment we met in that bar. I tried to fight it, but some things are fated. Why areyoufighting it?”
“I... uh...” I can’t complete my thought.
“Why not finish this? Neither of us is seeing anyone else right now.” I almost throw off my covers and hold out my arms to him. But the logical side of me knows this has to be a new twist on the game-playing between us.
Is he going for payback? Will he get me aroused and desperate and then turn and walk away? I deserve it. But there’s a big difference between the two of us. He has an ego the size of Alaska, and mine is fragile. I don’t handle rejection well. I definitely didn’t when I was ten or when I was twenty, and I’m not much stronger now. My fears give me the strength to stiffen my spine and throw him a withering look.
“I don’t think so, Tyler. Yes, maybe I do feel... somesmallglimmer of something when I’m around you, but not enough to compromise myself.” He smiles — the man actually smiles as he leans back a little.
“You’ll change your mind, Olivia. I guarantee it,” he says. Instead of walking out the door, he sits on the side of my bed.
“What are you doing?” I’m clutching the comforter so tightly my fingers are going to cramp up at any minute. But it’s worth it. It keeps me from reaching for him.
“Giving you something to think about.” He leans down and grips my head. Before I’m able to utter a word, his mouth covers mine. Tyler traces my lips and then dives in as if he owns me.
Each stroke of his tongue sends tiny messages through my body, begging me to let him give me what I really want. The voice inside my head telling me this is an awful idea is growing farther and farther away. And then he releases me.
“Self-sacrifice doesn’t do you any good. You’ll hurt all night — I guarantee it.” He rises and strides from my room.
It takes me a good half hour before I can control the ache he left behind. He’s right. I’m going to hurt the rest of the night, and maybe a lot longer. I turn off the light, then toss and turn for the next hour. A message comes in on my cell phone, the one I told him was off, but merely was on vibration mode.
I’ll pick you up at six Monday evening — for work. Sweet dreams.
I want to toss my phone across the room and shatter it. I hate him, yes — for sure it’s hate. I want to go yell at Piper for letting the man in. But I decide against it. I’ll prove Tyler wrong and sleep like a baby. I’m wrong. Very wrong. No sleep comes.
ChapterTwenty-One
Olivia
By Monday morning, I’m uber grouchy from lack of sleep. I haven’t heard another word from Tyler, but that doesn’t mean the man hasn’t been on my mind from the time he walked out of my bedroom a day and a half earlier.
