“Never tell me you aren’t beautiful. Do you hear me?”
She could only nod dumbly, because he was still touching her with more intimacy than any other human being ever had.
“Kiss me,” he said.
With no hesitation, she lifted her mouth to his descending lips. With erotic symbolism, his tongue rubbed against hers as each of his fingers, in turn, touched her nipples.
“Oh, God,” he grated, falling away from her. His breath was harsh and uneven. He stared at the decking beneath his feet for a long time before he looked up at her ruefully. With the gentleness one would use on a child, he raised the straps of her dress and rebuttoned the button he had undone.
“If I don’t leave you now, I won’t be able to keep my promise and go slowly.” His hands came up once more to cup her face. “But God, you’re delicious.”
He kissed her with excruciating tenderness, slipping his tongue into her mouth only far enough to touch the tip of hers. “Good night, my love,” he said. Then he was gone, disappearing into the rain.
Hailey let herself in and prepared for bed in a state of euphoria. He didn’t intend to use her. He liked her for herself, not for what she could do for him, sexually or any other way. Had he only intended to use her, he wouldn’t have left her tonight.
He had promised to seduce her, but it would be a seduction by design, exercising finesse and tenderness, perhaps even … love? Love? She shivered with expectation at the thought. He had called her his love, but had the endearment meant anything? She knew from a lifetime of painful experience that people often paid lip service to love as a means of manipulation.
Tyler, the Tyler who had kissed her with such passionate care, wouldn’t be that cruel.
CHAPTER 5
Guest Relations. Miss Ashton speaking,” Hailey said into the telephone.
She had been at the park only half an hour, but her desk was already piled with mail and messages. There was a steady stream of guests entering the park turnstiles, though she had noticed earlier that the demographics of the crowd had changed in the past couple of weeks. Since school had started in most communities, the people who were visiting the park these days made an older, more sedate crowd.
“Good morning, Miss Ashton. Guess who this is.”
She didn’t have to guess. That voice had filled her dreams the entire restful night. Had she ever slept so well? She had awakened this morning still rosily aglow with remembrances of the past evening.
“Is this the man on the radio who gives away the prize money?”
“Nope.”
“Darn. I don’t have any luck. Are you the man who is always calling me to ask if he can clean my upholstery, drapes, and carpets for one low price?”
“Wrong again.”
“I know you’re not my breather, he—”
“What breather?” The voice on the other end dropped its humor and became demandingly gruff.
Hailey laughed. “I was only seeing if you were paying attention.”
“Good morning,” he repeated. His tone changed again. This time to a private pitch. He might well have been speaking to her across a pillow.
“Good morning,” she whispered back.
He cleared his throat “Things at the park okay? I talked to Harmon earlier and he seemed to think so.”
“Yes. Or as okay as things can be two weeks before closing. A few guests are complaining that some of the concession stands are closed. I’ve explained that many of our employees are students and that, come September, they go back to school, making it necessary for us to close some of the park’s attractions. They grumble, but they have to have something to complain about.”
“You handle it all with aplomb.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Will you miss me while I’m gone?”
Her heart plummeted and she gripped the receiver with a hand grown suddenly lifeless. “Gone?” she asked thinly.