Maybe he was toying with her. But still, much to her frustration, his words sent an instant glow through her. She didn’t want him to get the idea that she was his for the taking whenever he felt like he was getting an itch. So she repressed that glow.
“What makes you think you have the right to do that?” she said, one hand on her hip as she tried to give him a stern look.
He simply pulled her against him again, knocking the fight right out of her as her breasts tingled and her core heated. He smiled smugly — dammit, the man couldn’t miss the effect he was having on her.
“I told you that you were mine, Elena,” he murmured against her lips. “And I keep what’s mine.”
Then he stopped talking, and stopped her from replying as he plundered her mouth again. When his hand slipped beneath her sweater and skimmed up her stomach and over her breast, she sighed into his kiss.
She enjoyed it for a moment, but then she reluctantly pushed away from him.
“Didn’t you promise me coffee?” she gasped.
His eyes dilated, and he groaned his disapproval, but he let her go and ushered her to the table where he’d set the flowers and coffee.
“As promised, madam,” he said with a bow that had her lips turning up involuntarily.
“Thank you. It is the least you can do for waking me up so early on my day off,” she told him, trying to sound annoyed but not pulling it off.
Taking a sip of the coffee, she sighed in happiness. A mocha latte — just what the doctor had ordered. She had no idea how he knew her favorite coffee, and she wasn’t going to question it. She could totally see him calling her legal secretary and asking, though. No way. That would have been too thoughtful.
“I would never have thought of waking you up if I hadn’t planned to give you an excellent day,” he said with a wink, and he picked up his own cup of coffee.
“And what are we doing?”
“You’ll just have to get out of here to find out,” he told her.
“Tyler.”
“Yes?”
“Thanks for the flowers. They’re beautiful.” She always had been a fan of daffodils and lily’s.
“Not nearly as beautiful as you are,” he replied, then gave her his patented megawattage smile. If she weren’t careful, that smile could drop her to her knees. She was sure, though, that he would enjoy her in exactly that place.
Even without the smile, the man could drop her to her knees. Her original plan to drop him, even drop-kick him, had been foolish, and everything had turned around on her. But the thing that frightened her the most was that she didn’t care — didn’t care at all.
“If you are dragging me out, then I insist on you telling me something. What is this big project?” she said, standing firm.
He sighed as if dealing with a small child. She didn’t care what he thought about her. Answers were justified here.
“I’m taking you to the Sunriver Children’s Camp,” Tyler finally said.
“Sunriver Children’s Camp?” she asked. She’d heard of the place. It was a hundred-acre plot outside the city, and a massive construction project was going on there. “What do you have to do with that?”
“I’m part of the group building it,” he answered.
“How much of a part of it?” she asked.
“It’s kind of … well, it’s my baby, actually.”
“You? Really? This is your project?” she asked. This wasn’t something she was expecting from a spoiled, pampered playboy.
For just a moment he looked almost hesitant, but soon the look vanished. In its place was his normal confident grin.
“Even assholes do good things once in a while.”
She stood there in silence. What could she say to that?
Elena hated this news about Tyler, hated to have something to humanize him with. It was much easier for her to resist the man when she thought of him as an utter bastard. To find that he had a caring side — that was unacceptable, a threat to her sanity.
Then again, didn’t really wealthy people look for projects as tax write-offs? That’s what this had to be for the sake of her own mental health.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tyler was on edge as he drove up to the construction site. Not like him at all, was it?
But this place had been a dream of his for years, and it was in the final stages. Soon, the camp would open, and children with disabilities and who were unfortunate enough to be in the foster-care system would be running through the paths and taking part in the multitude of activities that he and his team had envisioned.
So he didn’t quite understand the anxiety he was feeling. All he knew for sure was that he liked this woman next to him. It had killed him not to call her, text her, email her, hell, send a carrier pigeon to her, while he’d been in London.
But he’d told himself he could go a week without talking to her. It had been a little less than a week, actually, but he’d been determined he could do it. That he’d missed her as much as he had wasn’t exactly reassuring, but what was he going to do?
Apparently he was going to buy her flowers and pull her into his arms and kiss her until neither one of them could walk straight. But if Elena didn’t love the camp as much as he did, he’d be … he didn’t know the word he was looking for … was it hurt? No way. He couldn’t be hurt by that — could he?
Tyler didn’t even know this woman, not really, he tried telling himself. But in a short time, she had turned his world upside down more than once, and he liked her, really liked her.