He was in uncharted territory with Elena.
They stepped back up to the cabin deck and he brought her inside, then slowly backed her up against the wall.
“I need to taste you again, Elena.”
Before she even thought of uttering a protest, he leaned forward and captured her lips in a hungry kiss that showed her how much she affected him. She groaned into his mouth before winding her arms around him and giving back as much as she was getting.
His fingers dug into her hair as he turned her head, needing, wanting, hoping this was going to lead them straight into the master bedroom.
After several soft caresses of her sweet lips, those hands that had been gripping his shoulders shifted and she ran them across his chest and then pushed.
Tyler was in a daze as he leaned back only the slightest bit. “What?” he asked, surprised at his hoarse voice.
“It’s time to get me home, Tyler. I really do need to work.”
Her eyes were filled with hunger, her body quivering in his embrace, but she was telling him no. Tyler felt it in his bones that he could change her mind. She wanted him, even if she felt she needed to wait. Maybe it was a three-date rule or something.
Tyler normally didn’t date women who were prudish. He liked sex, didn’t like waiting, and didn’t want to have to stick around when he didn’t want to. He was breaking all sorts of rules with Elena.
And it seemed to be worth it.
Chapter Nine
This woman is driving me insane!”
Tyler looked down at his phone for the hundredth time in a thirty-minute span.
“Well, then,” Blake said, “she’s obviously not the one for you if you’re getting this riled up so soon after you’ve met.”
“Here’s the problem — I can’t get her off my mind. We sent texts back and forth for a week before I finally got her to go to lunch with me. We had a nice time, took a walk, then had a kiss that has left me hard all week, and now I can’t pin her down for another date.”
“Then maybe she’s just messing with you,” Blake said, “and you’re better off to let this one go.”
“I know that!” Tyler was beyond frustrated. Again he looked at his phone. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
“So why are you storming around your office and acting like a bear?”
“Because I can’t stop thinking about her,” Tyler yelled.
“Okay. Then do something about it,” Blake replied calmly.
“What? Kidnap the woman? I don’t even know where she lives.”
“Kidnapping might be a little extreme,” Blake told him. “But I’m sure you have ways of finding out where she is. Find out whether she’s playing games.”
“Oh, believe me, I know she’s playing games,” Tyler said. “I just don’t know what the prize is.”
“Then you’d best figure it out.”
“I have no effing idea what she could be after,” Tyler said. “It’s not as if she’s going to get anything out of me.”
“There are a lot of things a woman could get out of you,” Blake told him.
“Only if I’m willing to give them.”
Blake laughed. “It seems you’d be willing to give just about anything right now.”
“Yeah, I know. And she has me so damn worked up, I’d just about sell my soul to take her to bed.”
“Then she might just have you exactly where she wants you,” Blake told him.
“That’s the thing that pisses me off the most,” Tyler snapped.
“Seriously, Tyler, you might want to let this one go.”
“Don’t look at me like that, Blake.”
“Like what, Tyler?”
“Like I’m some pathetic sex-starved idiot.”
“You’re sure as hell acting like it.”
“Well, I’m not. I’m doing just fine,” Tyler insisted.
And then he froze when his phone buzzed. He would not look. He would not look. He would not look!
“Dammit!” He was practically shouting again as he lifted his phone up and looked.
Blake said nothing.
Tyler was close to having a mental breakdown, and he really should just delete this woman. She’d been trouble since the moment he’d approached her in the bar two weeks ago, and since then his world had been spinning off its axis. If he was this consumed with her before they even made it to bed, he’d most likely find himself in a hell of a lot more trouble once the deed was done.
Sorry I took so long to reply. I’ve been working.
“That’s it. She takes two hours to get back to me, and she hardly says anything,” Tyler muttered. Thankfully, Blake still remained silent.
Are we on for dinner at the Pink Door? Hey, Tyler could keep it short and to the point as well.
The clock ticked as he waited … and waited.
Dinner sounds great. I’ll meet you there at seven.
I will pick you up at six and take you to the restaurant. He wanted to know where she lived, dammit.
Sorry, but I’m coming straight from work. I’ll just meet you there.
Should he argue? Nah. Tyler knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere. This woman was more stubborn than he was — that was for sure. Maybe Blake was right. Maybe he really should just cancel.
He tossed his phone down and walked out of his office without bothering to offer a word of explanation to his brother. What else could he say? At this point, he simply sounded like … a pouting baby. And that wasn’t who he was.
Tyler left the Knight Construction offices and walked down to his favorite coffee stand. After grabbing a hot Americano, he made his way to the small park nearby and took a walk around one of the trails.