“Hailey, no,” he said with concern, even as she thrust herself against him.
“Yes, yes.”
No longer the teacher, Tyler learned from her. He tried to keep a rein on his desire, but her demands wouldn’t let him. In a final helpless surge of passion, he took them both to a final shattering fulfillment.
Self-disgust was written on his face when he left her and collapsed onto his back beside her. “I’m sorry, Hailey. I knew I was hurting you. I didn’t mean to make love to you again so soon. I wouldn’t hurt you for anything in the world. Will you forgive me?”
She laid her head on his beating heart and closed her arms around him. “I would never have forgiven you if you hadn’t.”
“You look kinda cute like that,” she teased as she stepped out of the shower. Tyler was at the basin, his hips wrapped in a towel, the lower half of his face lathered with shaving cream.
“You don’t look bad yourself,” he said, eyeing her in the mirror. She curtsied impishly. “If you’ll stop acting like a brat, I’ll tell you that that shower was the most erotic experience I’ve ever had. It outdid even my wildest fantasies. I honestly don’t know how we kept from drowning.”
He chuckled as the razor took one long stroke from the base of his throat up to his jaw. “I see you can still blush. Despite all your wanton ways, Miss Ashton, you are still a prude.”
“You think so?” she taunted, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. He accommodated her by settling himself back against her. “What can I do to show you that I have absolutely no scruples left?” The tips of her breasts tantalized his back.
The razor was poised over his Adam’s apple, but judiciously he didn’t touch it to his skin. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
With a sudden movement, she yanked the towel from around his waist and threw it to the floor.
“You’re right,” he said gruffly as she pressed herself against him, “you couldn’t get more shameless than that.”
The wandering fingers that slipped below his waist proved him wrong. His breath hissed through clenched teeth. The razor was dropped into the basin. He whirled around and, taking her off guard, bent down to grab her under the hips and raise her off the floor. Forgetting the frosting of shaving cream on his face, he buried it between her breasts, still dewy and warm from the shower.
“At this rate I’ll die young but sated,” he mumbled. His mouth traveled from the bewitching valley to the tempting crests, planting firm kisses everywhere it touched.
Hailey twisted away from him and cried out. He knew the way she spoke to him in pa
ssion and he knew instantly that this was different. He jerked his head back to look at her worriedly.
“Tyler,” she gasped, tears forming in her eyes. “That shaving cream, is it mentholated?”
* * *
“I’ll pay you back,” she warned, dripping raw egg from the wire whisk she shook at him. Joining her in the kitchen where she was preparing them a hearty breakfast, he had made the mistake of asking her—with a broad grin splitting his handsome face—how she felt. “You couldn’t even help me wash it off you were laughing so hard.”
“I’m sorry, Hailey,” he said contritely, though he couldn’t disguise the mischievous lights dancing in his eyes. “I didn’t think. Honest. Scout’s honor.”
She scoffed at his penitent expression. “Humility doesn’t fit you at all. You were born to be arrogant, overbearing, and conceited. But you’re forgiven if you’ll set the table.”
“Okay, but first things first.” He came to her and encircled her with possessive arms. Finding her mouth unerringly, he kissed her with a hunger that hadn’t been satisfied even through the long hours of the night.
When they had at last left the quilt in front of the fireplace for his king-size bed, they promised each other they would sleep. It was a worthless pledge that neither could keep. His suggestion that they practice caution—in deference to her recently lost virginity—fell on deaf ears.
Now they caressed and kissed with renewed vigor. Each embrace only enhanced their desire. The butter sizzling in the skillet until it burned and filled the kitchen with acrid smoke brought them to their senses. They didn’t even mind cleaning the skillet and starting over again.
Hailey was feeding him a last scrap of bacon off her own plate when he said, “I need to call Atlanta and check on some things. Do you think you can manage to amuse yourself until I get done?” He licked her fingers free of bacon grease, then decided they weren’t quite clean and started the procedure again.
She watched as each finger was drawn between his lips with a gentle suction. His teeth raked against her fingertips. The words she framed in her mind had a hard time finding their way to her mouth. “I … uh … I guess I can clean up the kitchen.”
“Call me if you need me,” he breathed as he kissed her once again.
Twenty minutes later she found him in his bedroom sitting on the side of the bed, listening in deep concentration to whomever was speaking on the other end of the line. “Okay, but someone messed up. Find out where the breakdown was by this time tomorrow. I’ll want to know then how you intend to get back in the customer’s favor.” He slammed the receiver down without another word, and Hailey felt pity for the employee who had come under such criticism.
“Troubles?” she asked softly and touched his hair.
“Yes,” he grumbled absently. Then as if realizing for the first time that she was there, he pulled her down onto his lap. “To hell with all that,” he said, stretching her sweater tight across her breasts and looking at the results with evident pleasure.