“I can’t finish this whole thing. Do you want half?” Piper asked.
“Thanks. Don’t mind if I do,” Tyler replied, ever so polite.
“What do you want to discuss?” Elena asked while slowly unwrapping her sandwich. She’d been starving. Now she couldn’t seem to find her appetite.
“We can eat first, then talk later,” he said, seeming content to munch on the turkey and swiss.
“Fine by me. I’ve started your billing from the moment I sat down.”
“Why don’t we just call it an even eight hours today? That way you won’t get anxious,” he said, taking a bite and sitting back without a care in the world.
“I’ve got a full schedule,” Elena pointed out. “I don’t plan on meeting with you for eight hours.”
“You never know where things will lead,” he said right back.
Her friend was whipping her head back and forth between the two of them, and Elena sent her a silent plea for help.
Piper smiled. “Do you need me to leave so you two can just get it on right here?”
Elena gasped. Tyler looked thoughtful for a moment before giving Piper his award-winning smile.
“I have heard rumors about the stacks,” he said with a wink.
Elena turned red before ducking her head. She didn’t know which person she was more irritated with at the moment – Piper or Tyler.
“You both should keep your voices down. We are, after all, in a library,” she snapped.
“Yes, but it’s slow today. Talk all you want,” Piper said.
Tyler finished his sandwich and then rose from the table. With wary eyes, Elena watched him move over to the trashcan and throw away his garbage before moving back over to the table and taking the seat next to her.
What in the heck was he up to now?
“So,” Piper asked him, “what have you been doing that is making my best friend all antsy?”
Tyler threw her a smile before shifting in the chair and brushing his leg against Elena. Elena refused to move. If she showed this man the effect he was having on her, then he’d win. He liked winning.
So did she.
The problem was that where he touched her, little fingers of delight shot through her body. And from the look her best friend was shooting her way, Piper clearly knew exactly what was going on across the table from her.
Dammit!
“I plan on being her lover,” Tyler said.
Elena gasped at his audacity. “You seriously have no bounds, do you, Tyler?”
“No. I figure it’s best to tell it like it is. That way there will be no misunderstandings between us,” he replied.
“There’s definitely a misunderstanding between us. I don’t plan on getting anywhere near a bed with you.”
“I never said it had to be on a bed, Elena.”
“And how isn’t this sexual harassment?” Elena asked with a glare.
Tyler paused as his lips turned up. Then he leaned closer to her, his breath fanning the side of her face and neck. For once Piper was silent, though Elena would really have liked it if her friend would have spoken up and broken this tension.
“Do you want to file a complaint? I know an excellent attorney.”
Elena wasn’t normally a violent person — lawyers had to be careful, after all — but she had to resist the urge to reach across the slight space between them and give some action to her fingernails.
Piper spoke up. “What exactly is Elena doing for you? I meant that in a work-related sense. The rest is obvious.”
Tyler turned his attention to her best friend, and Elena let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
“I have several projects going on right now,” he said. “There’s plenty of work for Elena.”
“That doesn’t really tell me anything.” Piper wasn’t one to mince words, thankfully.
Elena was also eager to know what she was doing for Tyler. Right now, he didn’t seem to need her services at all — well, at least not her legal services.
“She’s offered her … let’s say … impressive skills to help me out,” Tyler responded.
His meaning was loud and clear, and Elena felt her cheeks heat even though she’d done nothing of the sort. She wasn’t his personal call girl, wasn’t available for the services he was insinuating that she was there for.
“Hmm. Don’t underestimate my best friend. She’s skilled in more ways than you know,” Piper said with a wink.
Elena was so shocked that she almost choked. What strange alternate universe had she fallen into? She understood this from Tyler. He was a dog. But her best friend? Had aliens overtaken her body?
“Yes, I’m quite aware of her skills. We’ve been dating for a month now,” Tyler said.
“She has been gone a lot lately. And she’s been so secretive. Are you the reason she’s been so tired?”
Before Tyler could say anything, Elena jumped in. “Sorry to say this, Piper, but I have been home. You’ve been the one gone so much. Maybe you’ve been hiding some secrets of your own.”
If she turned the tables, maybe this inquisition would stop. Please, please …
“Your life is so much more interesting than mine,” Piper said, not falling for the bait. “I’ve been working at the library and helping my brother out with his business since he’s short staffed. Nothing interesting there.”
“How long have you been a librarian, Piper?” Tyler asked.
“About five years,” she said.
He paused at that. “Well, you’re not like Mrs. Pokey, my old high school librarian,” he said with a laugh.