“Yeah, you know that stuff that bubbles and foams in the water.”
She ignored his attempted humor. “Where is yours?”
“If I knew, would I be borrowing more?”
She stepped into the bathroom where Faith’s off-key rendition of a popular rock song could be heard over the shower’s spray. She picked up an unwrapped bar of hotel soap and opened the door a crack to offer it to him.
He moved with lightning speed. Her wrist was grasped in an iron grip and she was hauled through the door and tossed unceremoniously onto the sofa of the sitting room. He lay atop her, pinning her to the yielding cushions. Her robe fell open. His hard thighs moved against hers. Her arms were held on either side of her head by strong fingers locked around her wrists. Their breathing was loud and rapid in the still room where Faith’s singing was only a dim echo.
“Let’s have it,” he demanded.
“Let me up.”
“Not a chance. Not until I know what burr has gotten under your saddle.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Like hell you don’t. I knew something was wrong when I called you before I left for Atlanta, but I didn’t have time to pursue it then. Now I’m back and you’re as prickly as a porcupine again, shooting daggers every time those green eyes light on me. I want t
o know why.”
“Nothing’s the matter,” she declared vehemently and renewed her efforts at release. His hold only became more tenacious.
“Then you’ll be wanting to kiss me as much as I’ve been wanting to kiss you.”
His lips came down on hers hard and insistent. She resisted, clenching her jaws together, refusing to respond to the hateful desire that even now was winding through her body.
He lifted his head and stared down into her stormy eyes. “Okay, my stubborn lady. You want to be persuaded. I won’t disappoint you.”
He lowered his head and nibbled at the skin on the side of her neck. His hair was a silky caress itself as he moved his head lower to rest against her chest. He kissed his way to the underside of her arm. “I missed you. Obstinate as you are, I missed you like hell.”
She sucked in her breath sharply as his lips opened over her skin. How is it she had never heard of that erogenous zone? His tongue skimmed it, touching it with fire, and a moan issued out of her throat. Futilely, she struggled to lower her arm and end this torment, but he refused to allow it. “You like that? We’ve only just started, Hailey.”
She fought the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, fought the liquid heaviness that throbbed between her thighs. Her mind screamed that she hated him, but the only sound that formed in her heart and on her lips was his name, cate-chistically repeated.
“Yes, my love. Look at how beautiful you are.” His eyes swept her length. “All week I fantasized about seeing you naked beneath me. I wanted to see these breasts that I had only touched in the dark. You’re more beautiful than I ever anticipated.”
His mouth sampled the side of her breast and she writhed against him. One of his knees insinuated its way between her thighs. It was an invasion that met no resistance. His swimming trunks were still damp as his hips settled in a complementing position over hers. Behind that scant piece of cloth, she felt his desire.
“So sweet,” he whispered. His tongue painted a swathe of white heat on the undercurve of her breasts. She could feel his eyes touching her before his breath fanned the nipples that seemed to beg for his touch.
So lightly that she might have imagined it, his lips brushed one pink bud. But she didn’t imagine the second light touch of his mouth, nor the damp flicking of his tongue. “Tyler,” she said urgently as his mouth closed around her.
Her hands were freed, but they sought bondage of another kind in the thick mass of his hair. Her fingers plowed through it, holding his head against her, silently beseeching him never to cease that gentle tugging that transmitted tiny pinpricks of feeling to the center of her being.
Her other breast was blessed with the same ardent attention. He spoke love words against her warm, scented skin even as he rained kisses on it.
When at last he raised himself above her and peered into her eyes, now slumberous with passion, he asked, “Will you kiss me now?”
“Yes.” Consent sounded like supplication. “Yes, Tyler. Kiss me.”
His mouth fused with hers. They allowed themselves no unnecessary movement, savoring the taste, the feel, the essence of the other while they drank thirstily. When at long last they indulged themselves in play, their tongues battled in a sexual skirmish.
It was while his tongue was exploring the fragile skin behind her ear that he murmured, “Now, aren’t you sorry you wasted all that precious time on hostility?”
If he had slapped her, she couldn’t have been brought up more sharply. What had happened? When had she lost control? My God! she thought. Had she forgotten the reason behind all his fervent pseudo-lovemaking? Her resolve had been to scorn the man, to spurn his romantic tricks. Instead, she was lying naked beneath him, begging him with every fiber of her being to take her, to use her.
She put the heels of her hands against his shoulders and shoved with all her might. Taking him completely off-guard, she sent him rolling off her and onto his back on the floor. She bolted to her feet, yanking the terry cloth closed over her feverish body. “Is this the way you pay all your baby-sitters?”