Burned

by Melody Anne

  Elena began losing her battle with herself. Should she just accept what her body wanted so badly?

  When she was ready to pull his pants down and hers with them, Tyler released her mouth and leaned back, fire gleaming in his eyes, his lips wet from their kiss, making her want to lean forward and connect them again.

  “I could carry you into my bedroom and make love to you over and over again until you don’t have a an ounce of fight left,” he said, his fingers still on the back of her neck, moving in slow circles that were sending shivers down her spine. “But I’m not going to do that. I don’t want you to say that I coerced this. I want you to own it, to love it, to accept that this is where we’re supposed to be.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I’m going to be miserable. I’m going to take you home so you can have time to figure things out. And then when we come together again it will be that much better.”

  There was so much damn heat pooling inside her that the stupid blue throw, which had been wonderful at first, was now suffocating her. Before she thought twice about it, she leaned forward and kissed him, every ounce of hunger she’d been feeling conveyed in her response.

  “Okay, we’ve already made love, so one last time doesn’t make me dishonorable,” he growled before unzipping her slacks and pushing them and her panties off her hips. “But then I’m taking you home to think.”

  There was no more talking as Tyler pulled his own trousers down and shifted her so she was sitting on top of him. With a hard thrust, he was inside her, and it was exactly where she wanted him to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I’ll be by to pick you up in one hour.”

  “What? Why?”

  Elena was groggy as she listened to Tyler’s disgustingly alert voice on the other end of the line. What time was it? When she glanced at her clock and saw that it was only seven in the morning, and on a Saturday, she was hardly thrilled.

  “I’ve decided it’s time you see my big project. Get up and be ready. I’ll bring coffee.”

  “When did we decide this?” she asked. Elena could never be called a morning person, not on the best of days, but the weekends were her time to sleep until at least nine. Tyler was interrupting that, and she wasn’t pleased about it.

  “Right now,” he told her. “I have a call coming in, so get up and dressed. I’ll see you in an hour.”

  Elena held the phone to her ear, stupefied. He’d just hung up on her. What she should do is turn off her phone, roll over, and bury her head beneath a pillow. Yes, he was her client, and, yes, she needed to make him happy, but she shouldn’t have to be at his beck and call, even though they’d made love last Monday.

  But then she hadn’t heard a single word from him for the rest of the week. What was she supposed to think? Maybe he’d gotten what he wanted and now it was back to business.

  Hell! She didn’t know. Throwing off her covers, she stomped into the bathroom. It would do her no good to try to go back to sleep now. She was fully awake and irritated. She was also wondering how he was going to treat her when he showed up.

  After drying off from her shower, she stood in front of her closet buck naked and wondered what she should wear. It was a weekend, and that normally meant shorts or sweats, depending on the weather.

  This wasn’t an official work meeting, she didn’t think, or at least that’s what she told herself, so, she compromised by picking out a pair of jeans, a nice cotton shirt, and her favorite sweater.

  Then she went over to her dresser and looked in the panty drawer. What if they did end up making love again? She didn’t want to be caught with less than sexy underwear. But at the same time, she didn’t want to make it so obvious she was hoping for or expecting sex.

  Ugh! Dating without actually dating a guy wasn’t easy at all. She decided at long last on delicate lace underwear — not because of him, of course, but for her. Decision made, she dragged on her clothes, threw her hair into a ponytail, and brushed on only a light coating of makeup. She was just finishing up when her doorbell rang. Since Piper had been away from home last night, Elena was the only one there.

  Still, she wasn’t happy with Tyler, and with a little pettiness, she waited until he rang the bell again before she walked slowly to the door and took her sweet time unlocking it.

  The sight of him standing there with flowers in one hand, coffee in the other, his hair hidden beneath a baseball cap, and an old college sweatshirt hugging his chest took her breath away. She didn’t have a chance to give him a greeting.

  He swooped past her, set the flowers and coffee on her table then came back and lifted her into his arms. His head descended as her lips formed an O of shock and then he was devouring her mouth while his hands gripped her butt and squeezed.

  “I’ve missed you this week. I thought work would never end,” he said when he released her lips and set her on the floor.

  Elena was slightly dizzy as she tried to get her bearings. That hadn’t been the greeting she’d been expecting. Not at all.

  “You knew where I was,” she said, then felt her cheeks flush. She didn’t want him to know she’d missed him, or had even noticed that he hadn’t called or stopped by.

  “I got called to London all this week, and, yes, I know I could have called, but with the time difference and working eighteen-hour days, I thought it would be better to just come back and ravish you like I’ve been dreaming of doing.”

  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.

  The more he learned about her, the more he found himself thinking that he could spend a lot more time with her. He hadn’t thought that possible after the last woman — and her affinity for closets …

  “Wow. I’ve seen the specs of this place, Tyler, but looking at something on paper and actually seeing it are two entirely different things,” Elena said, breaking him from his reverie.

  They were pulling up in front of the main lodge —15,000 square feet and three stories, made of logs, and with giant picture windows and inviting doors. It was certainly impressive, even to a billionaire.

  “This is the gathering place for all the campers. I wanted it to be big and beautiful, and more importantly, I wanted it to be inviting. I want this entire experience to be the best of these kids’ lives. Some of them won’t have anything else like it.” He opened the driver’s door and came around to her side of the car.

  She stepped out and walked with him to the lodge. The doors were open and she could hear the noise of power tools.

  “You actually got people to work today?”

  “Yes, I have crews going seven days a week. Summer is just around the corner, and I want to be open by July so we have less than a month to go.”

  “How much more do you have to do before it’s done?”

  “We’re almost done with construction, so we have to decorate, get the special-needs equipment installed, test it all out, and wait for the final inspection. I’ve hired only the best of the best, so it’s moving along quickly,” he told her before officially beginning the grand tour.

  They went through the lodge, which had a state-of-the-art kitchen, medical rooms, lounge areas, game areas, and even private nooks with desks for children who need a few moments to themselves.

  “A lot of autistic children need to have quiet time,” Tyler said, “and we’ve tried to anticipate the needs of all the children who will be coming in.”

  Elena listened to him explain how the rooms were to be used, and how the staffers were being set up. After leaving the lodge, they made their way through a maze of trails with clearly marked signs.

  There were several sections to the camp, three-sided cabins taking up a huge portion, and some fully enclosed cabins taking up another section. One area had a cluster of yurts, and another area was more dense with trees and brush and had areas carved out for tents and fire pits.

  Each kind of camping experience that you could ever imagine was being put in place. The paths were wide and paved so they were all easily wheelchair accessible, and so were the recreation areas, where the kids could shoot bows and arrows or learn to make a fire, or take part in any number of other camp activities.

  When he stopped at one of the enclosed cabins and opened the door, she smiled as she stepped inside. This one had the name “Rockers’ Hut” on the outside, and it would be a budding musician’s dream come true.

  Instruments were painted on the walls, the wooden bunk beds were carved with musical notes, the floor had a drum set etched into it, and the curtains looked as if they were on fire. The closet held a number of real musical instruments, and in the corner a keyboard sat waiting.

  “Did you put this much time into every cabin?” she asked as she touched the camp mattress that was just waiting for bedding to be placed on it.

  “We aren’t finished — not at all — but each enclosed cabin will have a theme to it. The three-sided cabins are all the same, but through the years the kids will personalize those as well.”

  “So you aren’t done with the decorating?” she asked excitedly.

  “No, my brothers and I did this one as an example of what we expected. We want each cabin to have its own theme.”

  “Have you decided on all the themes yet?”

  Tyler smiled at the look on her face. “No, not yet. That phase is a couple weeks away still.”

  “Can I volunteer, please?” Elena asked as she left the cabin and ran to the next one over. He hurried to catch up.

  “I’d love that,” he said. This woman awed him.

  “And I get to do any theme I want? And can I do more than one?”

  “Yes. Okay, anything within reason,” he said. “We wouldn’t want … well, you know …”

  “Oh, thank you for sharing this with me, Tyler!” Elena ran back to him and jumped up in his arms, her face shining.

  “Thank you for caring,” he told her, suddenly choked up with something uncomfortably close to emotion.

  He kissed her hard and for a moment she melted against him. But then she wriggled to get down and rushed into the empty cabin in front of them. After scanning the space, she set her purse on one of the built-in desks and rifled through it for a notebook and pen.

  “I’m going to do a princess theme in one of the cabins. Yes, the curtains will look like they’re made out of satin and lace, and they’ll have a gigantic crown at the top. And the walls will be covered with drawings capturing my favorite scenes from the Disney movies — the teapot and rose from Beauty and the Beast, for example, and th
e magic carpet from Aladdin. Then, we can make dress-up totes for kids of all sizes and maybe even have a salon day at the lodge where the girls can get their hair done. A lot of little girls love to the idea of being princesses.” She started scribbling frantically again.

  Tyler didn’t get a chance to say anything. She filled out a few pages, and then flipped over for the next cabin in line.

  “This one will be superheroes. I always thought I was going to marry Superman when I was a little girl, and my first bathing suit was a Wonder Woman one. When I realized later on in life that superheroes weren’t real, I was devastated, but everyone, both young and old, still loves a good superhero story.”

  Tyler leaned against a bed and couldn’t help but grinning as more and more ideas kept popping from her imagination. Heck, he might need to build a few more cabins.

  He loved each and every one of those ideas.

  They spent an hour in the cabin before she finally stopped, then looked at him with a sheepish expression.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been going on for a while, haven’t I?” she said, tucking her notebook back into her purse.

  “I could sit here all day and night and listen to you. I love that you want to participate in my vision.” Maybe it was time to drag her off to one of the counselors’ cabins. Was he changing this much? Maybe.

  Just as he pulled her into his arms, the door swung open. With a grumble, Tyler released Elena and turned to find his two brothers in the doorway, stupid grins on their faces.

  “We’re you planning on christening the place, Tyler?” Blake asked him.

  “Sure looked that way to me,” Byron added.

  “Shut up, both of you,” Tyler told them before addressing Elena. “Sorry about my brothers.” He could see the heat rising in her cheeks and the way she’d cast her eyes down, apparently in shame. “Don’t worry about them. They’re full of … words.”

  “I’m fine, Tyler,” she said. “Why don’t you spend some time with your brothers while I look at the other cabins. Are they all the same?”