Love Me (Coopers Creek #1)

by Bronwen Evans

  Silence met her statement. Would he buy it? Then finally, “If you say so.” His tone of voice said that he still wasn’t happy, but she was relieved when he dropped the subject. “How’s he coping?”

  “I haven’t seen him yet, either. He wasn’t home from work. He’s just as busy as you are.”

  Ric laughed. “Yeah. He works hard, but plays hard, too. Parenthood is time consuming. Between his women, and Hayley, and work, he’s stretched kind of thin.”

  Her heart constricted. His women. Not a topic that she wanted to hear about or discuss with her brother—or anyone, for that matter.

  “Hey, wait a minute, if Tyler didn’t know you were coming, why did you fly to New York?”

  “Hayley called me in tears. I don’t think she’s adjusting very well.” She paused before saying, “I think she’d cope better in Cooper’s Creek. How would you feel about doing a stint in New York? I mean what if Tyler were to move back to Cooper’s Creek and take over the Denver office, just until Hayley worked through her grief?”

  “Hmm. Might work. I’d welcome the change of scenery. How long are we talking about? How’s Tyler feel about it?”

  That was the problem. She didn’t know how to bring it up to Tyler. It was hard to talk to him when he wouldn’t return her calls or answer her messages. Tomorrow she’d visit his office if necessary.

  “I just told you that I haven’t talked to him yet. I thought I’d check with you before suggesting it.”

  Ric chuckled. “Oh, yeah. So you did. Anything for Hayley, you know that, sis.”

  Emily did know that. For some reason Ric doted on Hayley, and had from the day she’d been born. She’d never seen a man more taken with a child that wasn’t his own, but then again, the Jeffries and Stanford families had been friends for years. Ric and Tyler were like brothers, so it only made sense that he’d appointed himself Hayley’s honorary uncle.

  “Thanks, Ric. I owe you a huge hug.”

  “Some of your homemade blueberry pie would be a great way to thank me, too. I’m sorry I missed you today. Hey, when you fly back, I’ll pick you up in Denver and you can stay the night at my place. I haven’t seen you for a while now and it’ll give us a chance to catch up. Take a bunch of pics of Hayley for me. And tell her I miss her and that I’ll see her soon.”

  “Will do. I’m flying in tomorrow afternoon at three.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there. Tell Tyler I’m pissed at him for letting you stay in a hotel.”

  Emily sighed. “I think he’s got more important things to worry about, like Hayley.”

  Ric let out noncommittal grunt. “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have killed him to show some hospitality.”

  Emily heard a door buzzer in the background and Ric said, “Gotta go, sis. Got company.”

  “A woman, I assume. Anyone special?” Hayley asked hopefully. She’d love for her brother to find a nice woman and to have some nieces and nephews to spoil.

  Ric merely laughed. “No. I’ve told you, sis, that ain’t happening for a while. I’m not ready to settle down.”

  As she hung up, Emily couldn’t help but wonder why guys always seemed to put a time limit on relationships. If you met the right person, what did it matter if you were twenty or forty? She’d thought that she’d met her dream man, but apparently she hadn’t been his dream woman. She often wondered if you ever got a second chance at capturing a dream.

  But her feelings didn’t matter at the moment. She’d come to New York today because she wanted—needed—to see Hayley. She hoped to talk Tyler into letting her take Hayley home for a while where she could deal with her grief better. The phone call she’d gotten yesterday from the little girl had broken her heart. She hadn’t been able to ignore her goddaughter’s plea. A little girl who’d lost so much needed familiarity, friends, and those that loved her.

  Maybe she was being overprotective, but she needed some reassurance that Hayley was coping well. She’d gone to Tyler’s apartment during the day while he’d been at work, hoping to visit Hayley without having to see him. But Hayley had gone to dance class.

  Emily rubbed her chest over the area of her aching heart. She usually took Hayley to dance class. Well, she had in Cooper’s Creek. Tyler wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone when his mother had died. Emily had lost the closest thing she had to a mother, and she’d lost Hayley, too.

  Emily understood what losing a mother was like. Her mother died when she was ten and her family had fallen to pieces. Her father took to the bottle to cope, leaving Ric, at only thirteen, the man of the house. If it hadn’t been for Maggie Jeffries, Emily would have had no one. She owed Maggie, and Emily had promised she’d care for Hayley. She was determined to keep that promise. No little girl should be without a mother.

  Why didn’t he call? After all, she’d come all this way. He was probably out on a hot date. According to Ric, the women who came and went through the revolving door of Tyler’s bedroom were so different from her. It made her realize that she’d never really been what Tyler wanted in a woman.

  Emily often wondered if she would have moved to New York for Tyler. She would have hated it. In Cooper’s Creek, people rallied around others who needed help. That sort of support was priceless and unlikely in a city this size.

  As a young girl, when her mother had died, Emily didn’t think she would’ve been able to cope without Maggie and the town’s support. Their father had tuned out and had never recovered, leaving Ric and her to deal with their grief on their own.

  New York was like stepping into an alien world and she felt out of place and insignificant. She was obviously insignificant to Tyler Jeffries because he hadn’t called.

  Emily re-read the page on the screen. She worked as a freelance editor, which allowed her to work from anywhere. Currently, she was editing a romance author’s latest historical book. The plot revolved around a Scottish laird, who’d swept in and saved the woman he loved from an arranged marriage to a cruel and abusive man—her captor.

  It was a good story, even if it was totally unrealistic. Gone were the days of helpless females needing a conquering hero to save them. An image of Tyler dressed only in a kilt swept into her head. He’d tried to be Lizzie’s overbearing protector, but it had backfired on him. The more he’d tried to control her, the wilder Lizzie had become.

  Emily’s stomach rumbled. Speaking of saving, she wouldn’t mind if room service swept in to save her from dying of hunger. She’d ordered almost an hour ago.

  Just then there was a hard rap at the door. “About time.”

  With a thankful smile plastered on her face, Emily swung the door wide, holding out an appropriate tip. Upon seeing who was at her door, she gasped. The ten-dollar bill fell from her suddenly slack hand and fluttered down to land at Tyler’s feet.

  They both bent to pick up the money and knocked their heads together.

  “Shit.” Tyler rubbed his forehead.

  The pain in Emily’s head didn’t come close to matching the pain in her heart. Cold anger glittered in Tyler’s eyes as he looked at her.

  Gathering her scattered wits, Emily said, “Sorry. I thought you were room service.”

  Without waiting for an invitation, Tyler stepped into the room, forcing her backward as he closed the door behind him. She’d forgotten how intimidating the sheer size of him could be. Struggling to keep her composure at his unexpected appearance at her door, she hurriedly turned and walked toward the center of the room.

  She took a couple of deep breaths before facing him again. Her greeting faltered on her lips as she gazed at him. At twenty-eight, he was a man in his prime. No Calvin Klein underwear model could’ve looked as sexy as Tyler did in jeans. His white T-shirt showed that he was still a country boy at heart, and the pointed cowboy boots poking out from under the designer-trimmed edges of his jeans conjured images of their frequent rolls in the hay.

  Long and lean, with broad shoulders and trim hips, he was utterly gorgeous, and her body immediately yearned for him. Her eye
s darted a minute glance at the bed. Looking back at him, her cheeks flushed when she saw that he’d followed her gaze. At one time, her actions would’ve elicited a naughty grin from him, but now his sensual mouth firmed into a thin line of disapproval.

  He ran a hand through his thick ebony hair and it gave him the “just woken up” look, something she’d been privileged to witness for an incredible, steamy year. To her heart it seemed like only yesterday. To her body, it seemed like forever. Just looking at him made her mouth water.

  Tyler studied her in stony silence, his gray eyes gone dark in anger and his raven eyebrows drawn together in a frown over his straight nose.

  It was obvious that he didn’t want to be there. Then why did he come?

  “Hello, Tyler,” she said evenly. “It’s been a long time.”

  “Not long enough.”

  “It’s a pleasure to see you, too,” she retorted, stung by his nasty remark.

  He studied her for one long, unhurried moment before seemingly dismissing what he saw, as though she was of no consequence.

  Her face heated, angry that she let him affect her so much. She knew she wasn’t one of his usual bombshells, who plastered themselves to his side like a Band-Aid over a wound. Emily gathered her pride. Her breasts might be small, but they were real and nicely shaped—

  Tyler’s sensual, yet direct voice startled her. “Why are you in New York?”

  She should’ve been resistant to the effect he had on her, but it seemed as though he still had the power to melt her insides. Keep calm. “I came to see Hayley, of course. She called me to come.”

  “Called you?”

  “She has all my contact info in her phone. Kids her age know their way around smartphones better than a blind man reads Braille.”

  “Phone? What phone?”

  “Her own. I gave her one in case she had an emergency and I pay the bill.” Tyler remained silent as she continued. “And she has an emergency. She hates it here. She begged me to come.”

  Speaking of hate... Tyler’s expression was full of it. But even though he glared at her with his fabulous, stormy eyes, Emily wanted him. The wall of sheer animal charisma standing in front of her made her body heat.

  He was male in the most primal sense of the word. She could smell the testosterone rising from him, and underneath it, the faint scent of some expensive cologne, which increased her awareness of the sexual tension that hummed in the small room.

  A room with a bed.

  Emily inwardly cursed her weakness. Her nipples hardened beneath her bra and she went rigid, deeply disconcerted by her strong reaction to the sensual charge emanating from Tyler.

  Ignoring it, she said, “Hayley’s world has been turned upside down. She barely remembers her mother and she just lost her grandmother. She’s frightened of a new home. New York is so different than Cooper’s Creek and she doesn’t know anyone here except for you and Mrs. Clark. Hayley told me that Mrs. Clark is leaving next week. She also said that you’re parading nannies in front of her, which makes her think that you don’t want her.”

  “That’s not true.” He cursed and sank down onto the edge of the bed. “Of course I want her.”

  “I can just imagine the type of women you’re interviewing, and I hope you’ll remember the nanny is not there to look after your…needs. I’m sure the qualifications are totally different,” she said sarcastically, a touch of the green eyed monster rising sharply.

  His gaze made her shiver. “Who’s looking after my needs is none of your business. But upsetting my niece is.”

  She tried to take the high road and remain calm. “How have I upset your niece? She doesn’t even know I’m here.”

  “Good. I want it to stay that way. She needs time to settle into her new surroundings and forget—”

  “Forget?” Emily interjected angrily. “You don’t just forget someone because they die. Some people can’t switch off their emotions like you can. Some of us actually like having feelings, Tyler. And some of us actually want to be loved.” She snapped her mouth shut before she said something she’d regret. She wasn’t going to reveal her true feelings to him. How, after four years, he still stirred her heart.

  “Don’t preach to me about love. It’s a dirty four-letter word that people use every day, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing.” He shook his head and suddenly rose to his feet, walking towards her with a menacing air.

  Emily stepped back before his anger, which swirled around her like a thick fog.

  “Stay away from Hayley,” he ordered in a dangerous tone.

  Emily lifted her chin defiantly and met his hard gaze. “Why? Lizzie was my best friend. I was with her, holding her hand all through Hayley’s delivery, sharing the pain and shedding tears of joy over the beautiful baby she’d brought into the world. I’ve been there for Hayley from the beginning and I have every right to see her.”

  Tyler rubbed his forehead in frustration. “You’re upsetting her.”

  She shook her head, adrenaline pumping through her veins. “Bullshit. How can I upset her when she doesn’t know I’m in New York? What you really mean is that I’m upsetting you.” She poked his rock solid chest with her forefinger. “Why don’t you grow a pair and admit it. You could’ve called me to tell me to stay away. Why come in person?”

  *****

  A moment of blinding understanding and awareness flashed between them. A profusion of memories exploded in Tyler’s mind. His gaze focused on her lips, which she wet nervously before saying, “You should go.”

  Tyler knew he should leave, but he couldn’t make his feet move. He was frozen in place by the hot, erotic memories of long nights spent in Emily’s arms. He tried to blame the sudden sexual flare on the fact that he hadn’t had sex for a month, but that was a lie. It was Emily herself that brought it on. His arousal was fast, hard, and completely unwanted.

  His need had been simmering just below the surface ever since he’d heard his housekeeper say Emily’s name earlier that evening. She was right. He should have just called. Being in Emily’s presence was wreaking havoc on his senses.

  Emily went to move around him, but his hand flashed out to grab her wrist. She turned back slowly, chest rising and falling as if she couldn’t get enough air. Mirrored in her eyes was the same desire that sang through his veins.

  He moved closer and cupped the back of her head, threading his fingers into her silky, honey-blonde hair. “I wish you hadn’t come here, Emily. I’m in hell whenever I think about you, whenever I look at you. Because I still want…”

  With a low growl of frustration, Tyler took her lips in a hard kiss, one that was meant to punish her for breaking his heart and ripping his world apart.

  Chapter Three

  Emily stiffened in his arms, completely taken off guard by his actions. His mouth crushed hers, demanding entry and she pushed against his chest in protest. Then he suddenly gentled his movements, skimming a thumb over her cheek, and lightly running his tongue over her lower lip.

  Little by little, Emily’s resistance crumbled and she parted her lips. Tyler slowly dipped his tongue into her mouth, teasing her by barely touching the tip of it against hers. Slowly, she responded to him, opening her mouth farther as his hand slid down her back to rest on her waist.

  The room suddenly became as hot as a sauna and Tyler’s palm seemed to burn through her shirt. God, she wanted him! There was no denying that fact as he plundered her mouth and tightened his embrace. Being pressed up against his hard body brought her libido roaring to life and she wound her arms around his neck, her resolve to stay aloof flying out the window.

  *****

  Holding Emily and kissing her again was like a glimpse of heaven for Tyler. Her sweet taste, the curve of her waist, and her slightly floral scent sent blood coursing to his groin and he grew hard as their bodies connected. Her soft, rounded breasts flattened against his chest and he ached to taste the rosy buds of her nipples.

  He knew that he had to stop, but his body had
other ideas and kept convincing his brain that just a few more moments wouldn’t hurt. The little whimper Emily made in the back of her throat when he deepened the kiss even more drove all reason from his brain. That was until someone knocked on the door.

  They jumped apart like two teenagers caught making out. Tyler reeled from the force of his desire and he had to take a steadying breath to bring himself under control again. A vindictive part of him was happy to see that Emily appeared as rattled as he was.

  As they stood staring at each other with wide eyes, the knock came again.

  Tyler came back to himself. “That’ll be your room service. Remember what I said. Stay away from Hayley—and me.”

  He flung the door open and almost ran the room service waiter over in his haste to escape Emily’s tempting presence. All the way out to his car, he berated himself for his weakness. Viciously, he threw the Porsche in gear and gunned the engine as he drove home.

  *****

  Emily frowned at herself in the hotel bathroom mirror the next morning. After Tyler’s visit last night, she’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep. Her mind and body had been too keyed up for slumber. During the meager minutes she’d slept, hot, sexy dreams about Tyler had plagued her and she’d awoken just as aroused as when she’d gone to bed.

  “I look like shit.” She’d done the best she could with makeup, but it couldn’t quite hide the dark smudges under her hazel eyes and no amount of cosmetics could erase the slightly haunted look in them. “Come on, Emily. Get it together. This isn’t about you. Hayley needs you.”

  Emily wished that she had some dressier clothes with her, but she hadn’t planned on staying past today. All she’d brought was a clean pair of jeans, white peasant blouse, and a pair of white lace-less sneakers.

  Having to wait to see Tyler hadn’t been in her plan. Of course, she could’ve gone back over to Tyler’s and pushed the issue.

  Coward. That’s what she was. No, I’m not. I came to help Hayley and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Tyler doesn’t know the first thing about raising a child, but I do, and being here isn’t healthy for her. I’ll make him see that come hell or high water.