This kiss wasn’t for anyone’s amusement. It was entirely selfish and shared only by them. It wasn’t passionate. Neither of them was an exhibitionist; neither felt it was proper to give way to passion before Faith’s impressionable eyes.
But it was a puissant kiss, rife with longing, unquenched desire, and quiet understanding. Sweetly, his tongue nudged the tip of hers, yet he could have been touching her in a much more intimate place for the impact the gesture had. That secret core deep inside her exploded and showered her body with sparks of sensation. What appeared chaste on the outside was most wanton within.
He raised his head and Hailey saw the desire burning in his eyes, a desire matching the smoldering coal of her own need. He helped her stand. Weakened by the onslaught of passion he had aroused, she swayed against him. His arms came around her protectively. He knew, understood, and shared her weakness. For precious long moments, they clung together.
When at last they released each other, Faith was eyeing them keenly. Her braces were fully revealed by her wide grin, and in her gray eyes, so like her father’s, a newfound happiness was dancing.
They arrived at Fontana Lake late in the afternoon, having taken their time driving through the National Park and enjoying the sights along the way. The forested mountains, with the gray blue mist—that gave them their name—shrouding their peaks, were tinted with the vivid hues of autumn.
Faith had complained about her restricted view, until Tyler relented and allowed her to sit in the front seat with him and Hailey. As it turned out, everyone enjoyed the arrangement. Faith, because she could see more through the wide front windshield. And Tyler and Hailey because they were forced to sit touching from knee to shoulder.
It seemed that Tyler’s right arm was inordinately busy as he drove, never remaining still for long. It finally occurred to Hailey that every time he moved it, it brushed across her left breast, keeping her in a state of constant agitation. When she turned her head to look at him accusingly, he grinned down at her mischievously and laughed. His wink congratulated her on finally catching on to his cleverness. Justice was served when she punished him by placing her hand high on his thigh.
His “cabin” turned out to be a three-bedroom, three-bath dwelling larger than most houses. The living room opened onto a view of the lake, while each bedroom had a vista of the mountains. It was thoroughly and tastefully furnished and equipped with all the amenities.
After showering and changing their clothes, they drove to a nearby lodge for dinner. Returning to the house, Faith informed them by quoting from the
TV Guide
that “the most terrifying motion picture ever filmed” was on that night.
“We can’t miss that, can we?” Tyler teased.
Faith put on a nightgown with Snoopy and Woodstock on its front and stretched out on the floor in front of the television screen to await the movie. She soon became engrossed in a musical special featuring one of her favorite rock stars.
“Let’s get comfortable, too,” Tyler said to Hailey, going toward his bedroom and peeling his sweater over his head as he walked.
Hailey closed the door to the bedroom that had been designated as hers, a room that was decorated in myriad shades of yellow and gold. She took off the skirt and blouse she had worn to dinner and hung them in the closet. Stripping down to her panties, she put on a long satin robe. It had been an extravagant birthday present from Ellen that she had never had an occasion to wear before. Its rich, dark green fabric highlighted the color of her hair and contributed to the brilliance of her eyes. An invisible zipper closed the garment from her neck to her knees, and the sleeves belled in a wide hem just below her elbows.
She was searching her suitcase for her slippers when there was a discreet knock on her door. “Who is it?” she asked breathlessly, quickly dousing herself with perfume.
“A naked savage bent on satisfying his lust.”
She was laughing as she pulled open the door. “You liar. You’re not naked at all.”
“Give me five seconds,” he said, backing her into the room. He had on a pair of gray warm-up pants and an Atlanta Falcons sweat shirt.
“You’re crazy.”
“And getting crazier,” he murmured as he tried to capture her mouth. “You’re driving me crazy.” He succeeded in trapping her lips against his. He parted them agilely and kissed her with the savagery he had intimated. His tongue sank into her mouth, instinctively finding the most sensitive places and playing havoc with her senses.
“Tyler—”
“Want has become need, Hailey. I need you.”
Pushing away from him, she sobbed softly, “We can’t.” Then as she ducked her head and stared at her bare feet she said hoarsely, “
I
can’t.”
“I know.”
She had thought he would curse, beg, shout, but never concur. This quiet agreement was the most surprising of a long list of astonishing statements. “You … you
know?”
She could barely mouth the words.
“Faith.”
Her features softened with emotion. He was coming to know how she felt about things. She nodded, touching his face with hands that told him how much his understanding was appreciated.
“We’re adults, Hailey. We know what it’s about, but she doesn’t. I can’t preach to her about morality if—”
“I understand, Tyler. I
do.
I was hoping you would.”
His index finger came up to trace her bottom lip. “You understand everything.” He spoke so softly the words were almost indistinct, yet she heard him. “But do you understand what it’s like for a man to want a woman as much as I want you? I’ve put you in every conceivable erotic fantasy. I ache, Hailey.”
“So do I.”
Her words stunned him. In disbelieving wonder, he stared at her as her fingers closed around the tassle on the zipper of her robe. Their eyes remained locked as the zipper rasped through the rustling fabric. The sound was amplified a thousand times over in the still room. Tyler didn’t move, didn’t breathe.
When the robe was opened, she reached for his hand, brought it to her mouth, and kissed his palm. Knowing she might never have the courage again, she drew his hand to the top curve of her breast and pressed it against her soft flesh. Her palm caressed the back of his hand, his knuckles, his strong, tapering fingers.
“Hailey,” he said in a voice rough with emotion. His eyes dropped from hers to fall on what seemed to come to life under the tender manipulation of his fingers. They combed down the roundness of her breast to the dusky center. His fingers marveled over her and he watched in awe as she responded. His eyes were lifted to hers once more before he lowered his head to cherish with his mouth what his hand had prepared for him.
His tongue laved her nipples with long, circling, sensuous strokes. Lips firm and moist closed around them. Ever so gently, he suckled her. She whispered his name and slipped her hands beneath his sweatshirt to caress the furred skin of his chest.
Tyler was seized by a surging desire that he forced down by a sheer act of will. He encompassed her with possessive arms. His hard, hot cheek nestled against the softness of her breasts. “It will be so good, Hailey,” he vowed in a harsh whisper. “It will be so good.”
He kissed her, not allowing them to touch anywhere except on the lips that molded together as though by design. They smiled at each other with new tenderness when they reluctantly pulled apart. They had just restored their clothing when Faith called from the living room. “Daddy, Hailey, the movie’s starting.”
By the second commercial, Faith was curled up beside Tyler on the deep sofa, burying her face in his shoulder during each gory scene. He kept an arm firmly around Hailey, and each time he looked at her, his eyes echoed the promise he had made.
B
reakfast was a boisterous affair, with Tyler acting as chef and Hailey and Faith issuing him orders. Somehow, despite all the confusion, the pancakes and bacon got on the table.
Hailey was impressed by the furnishings in the house. The kitchen was well equipped. None of the rooms had that sterile quality that is inherent in houses infrequently opened and aired. How often did Tyler come here? Had he and Monica ever come here together? She doubted it. It was too new for them to have used it during their married life, which had ended ten years ago.
Was this his getaway, where he escaped from the pressures of the business world? Had he brought other women here? How many?
“What’s on your mind, Red?”
She was brought out of her disturbing musings by Tyler’s question. She had been vacantly staring into her coffee cup and hadn’t realized that Faith had deserted the messy kitchen for the television set “Nothing,” she answered in a way invariably annoying to men.
He didn’t take umbrage. “I’ll tell you what was on
my
mind,” he said with a leer as he leaned across the cluttered table to take her hand.
“I
know
what was on your mind,” she said, trying to maintain her severe expression.
“Guilty. Ever since I collided with a tall, sexy, red-haired lady with glittering green eyes, my mind has been in the gutter. So I plead guilty. Bind my hands and feet with chains. Flay me with whips. I deserve only the cruelest and most unusual punishment.”
“Stop!” she cried, laughing. “You sound like you’re into S and M.”
“Not yet, but I never knock anything until I’ve tried it.” He was smiling, revealing the strong white teeth which she knew were capable of executing delicious torture. But as she watched, his teasing manner diminished and the fingers caressing her hand concentrated all their energy into the thumb that massaged her palm. “I’m guilty of many things, Hailey, but not of having a parade of women marching through my life.”
Every feature of her face contributed to her look of dismay. Uncanny. His perception of her thoughts was uncanny. “That
was
what you were speculating on, wasn’t it?” he asked. “How many women I’ve brought here or had torrid affairs with?”
She lowered her eyes. “It’s none of my business.”
He tugged on her hand. “Look at me, Hailey,” he commanded, and she obeyed. She didn’t want to know, but she had to. “Since my divorce, my encounters with women have been few, brief, and dismal. I have never pursued a woman with the diligence I have pursued you.”
“No?” She needed so badly to believe him.
“No. I’ve never let a woman come between me and business. On that trip I took recently, I crammed two weeks’ work into one because I couldn’t stand being away from you.”
Her temples were throbbing, not only from his words, but the definitive way in which he spoke them. To cover her emotional response, she stood quickly and began to clear the table with clammy, clumsy hands.
“Normally, when I sit in important, decision-making business meetings I concentrate on nothing except the subject under discussion. Do you know what I’ve been doing in all the business meetings I’ve attended since I met you?”
“We really need to get this cleaned—”
He caught her busy hands with his and drew her against him, trapping her hands between their bodies. “I’ve been thinking about you. About how we must take a trip to the coast so we can make love in the ocean. I want to stand with you in the surf and watch the waves lapping at your breasts.”
“Tyler—”
“And in my mind I must have taken a thousand showers with you, soaping every inch of you and then having you return the favor. I know exactly what you feel like under lathered hands.”
Her hands had opened and flattened against his chest. Now she placed her forehead against his breastbone and shook her head. “You embarrass me, Tyler. You really shouldn’t talk to me like this.”
His mouth was moving in her hair. “Would you rather we skip the talking stage and move right on to the action?” Her breath was released in a half-sigh, half-laugh. Cupping her face between his palms, he tilted her head back. “Worry about something else, Hailey, but don’t worry about other women.”
He kissed her then, sliding his hand under the waistband of her jeans and curving it to the shape of her hips. His mouth was ardent, insistent, persuasive, and for the remainder of the day, she didn’t worry about anything.
Tyler rented a motorboat and they spent the hours of the morning on the lake. By noon, windblown, exhilarated, and ravenous, they were demolishing cheeseburgers, french fries, and onion rings at a local hangout.
“What can we do now?” Faith asked as she dipped the last french fry into the catsup on her plate.
Tyler and Hailey groaned in unison. “Take a nap,” he said hopefully.
“Oh, come on. Let’s go horseback riding. Or hiking. I think they have motorcycles you can rent someplace.”
She settled for hiking, then a rousing game of table tennis in the lodge that was made available to property owners. While Tyler and Hailey were recovering from a five-game match, Faith played the electronic games. She met another girl her age who was just as addicted. In the end, she had to be dragged away from both her new friend and the machines.
By the time they returned to the house, they were all exhausted. “I suggest,” Tyler said, “that we rest before dinner. We’ll go eat barbecue at that place that has the Country-Western band.”
The ladies agreed to that and they all retired to their rooms to recuperate from the day’s activities. Hailey bathed leisurely in the deep tub and reapplied her makeup. She let her hair hang free and it curled around her face and neck beguilingly.
She dressed in a dark plaid cotton skirt characteristic of the “prairie look.” Her blouse was Victorian, having a round yoke across the chest and shoulders. A high, ruffle-edged collar reached to her jawline. The hemline of her skirt covered the tops of her soft leather boots.
The buttons on the back of her blouse had given her trouble, so she had asked Faith to help. “Gee, you look beautiful, Hailey,” she said as she admired her idol.
“Thank you. I was just about to tell you the same. Is that a new outfit?”
“Yes,” Faith said proudly, showing off a new shirt and a bright blue overall with cuffs that banded her ankles. “Do you like it? Daddy bought it for me, but I had to talk him into it. He said he’d never seen pants like this.”