“We make the best decisions when we don’t have our guard up,” he told her before clasping the back of her neck and pulling her to him. And he captured her lips in a heated kiss.
Elena began losing her battle with herself. Should she just accept what her body wanted so badly?
When she was ready to pull his pants down and hers with them, Tyler released her mouth and leaned back, fire gleaming in his eyes, his lips wet from their kiss, making her want to lean forward and connect them again.
“I could carry you into my bedroom and make love to you over and over again until you don’t have a an ounce of fight left,” he said, his fingers still on the back of her neck, moving in slow circles that were sending shivers down her spine. “But I’m not going to do that. I don’t want you to say that I coerced this. I want you to own it, to love it, to accept that this is where we’re supposed to be.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m going to be miserable. I’m going to take you home so you can have time to figure things out. And then when we come together again it will be that much better.”
There was so much damn heat pooling inside her that the stupid blue throw, which had been wonderful at first, was now suffocating her. Before she thought twice about it, she leaned forward and kissed him, every ounce of hunger she’d been feeling conveyed in her response.
“Okay, we’ve already made love, so one last time doesn’t make me dishonorable,” he growled before unzipping her slacks and pushing them and her panties off her hips. “But then I’m taking you home to think.”
There was no more talking as Tyler pulled his own trousers down and shifted her so she was sitting on top of him. With a hard thrust, he was inside her, and it was exactly where she wanted him to be.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I’ll be by to pick you up in one hour.”
“What? Why?”
Elena was groggy as she listened to Tyler’s disgustingly alert voice on the other end of the line. What time was it? When she glanced at her clock and saw that it was only seven in the morning, and on a Saturday, she was hardly thrilled.
“I’ve decided it’s time you see my big project. Get up and be ready. I’ll bring coffee.”
“When did we decide this?” she asked. Elena could never be called a morning person, not on the best of days, but the weekends were her time to sleep until at least nine. Tyler was interrupting that, and she wasn’t pleased about it.
“Right now,” he told her. “I have a call coming in, so get up and dressed. I’ll see you in an hour.”
Elena held the phone to her ear, stupefied. He’d just hung up on her. What she should do is turn off her phone, roll over, and bury her head beneath a pillow. Yes, he was her client, and, yes, she needed to make him happy, but she shouldn’t have to be at his beck and call, even though they’d made love last Monday.
But then she hadn’t heard a single word from him for the rest of the week. What was she supposed to think? Maybe he’d gotten what he wanted and now it was back to business.
Hell! She didn’t know. Throwing off her covers, she stomped into the bathroom. It would do her no good to try to go back to sleep now. She was fully awake and irritated. She was also wondering how he was going to treat her when he showed up.
After drying off from her shower, she stood in front of her closet buck naked and wondered what she should wear. It was a weekend, and that normally meant shorts or sweats, depending on the weather.
This wasn’t an official work meeting, she didn’t think, or at least that’s what she told herself, so, she compromised by picking out a pair of jeans, a nice cotton shirt, and her favorite sweater.
Then she went over to her dresser and looked in the panty drawer. What if they did end up making love again? She didn’t want to be caught with less than sexy underwear. But at the same time, she didn’t want to make it so obvious she was hoping for or expecting sex.
Ugh! Dating without actually dating a guy wasn’t easy at all. She decided at long last on delicate lace underwear — not because of him, of course, but for her. Decision made, she dragged on her clothes, threw her hair into a ponytail, and brushed on only a light coating of makeup. She was just finishing up when her doorbell rang. Since Piper had been away from home last night, Elena was the only one there.
Still, she wasn’t happy with Tyler, and with a little pettiness, she waited until he rang the bell again before she walked slowly to the door and took her sweet time unlocking it.
The sight of him standing there with flowers in one hand, coffee in the other, his hair hidden beneath a baseball cap, and an old college sweatshirt hugging his chest took her breath away. She didn’t have a chance to give him a greeting.
He swooped past her, set the flowers and coffee on her table then came back and lifted her into his arms. His head descended as her lips formed an O of shock and then he was devouring her mouth while his hands gripped her butt and squeezed.
“I’ve missed you this week. I thought work would never end,” he said when he released her lips and set her on the floor.
Elena was slightly dizzy as she tried to get her bearings. That hadn’t been the greeting she’d been expecting. Not at all.
“You knew where I was,” she said, then felt her cheeks flush. She didn’t want him to know she’d missed him, or had even noticed that he hadn’t called or stopped by.
“I got called to London all this week, and, yes, I know I could have called, but with the time difference and working eighteen-hour days, I thought it would be better to just come back and ravish you like I’ve been dreaming of doing.”