Carrie hung on to him. "Tyler, why are you doing this?"
He was silent for a moment, then raised his hands to cup her face between them. His eyes met hers and they stared at each other, tension shimmering between them. "Why don't you tell me, Carrie?" he growled. "Then we'll both know."
With that, he lowered his mouth to hers in a hard, hungry kiss that robbed her of her breath and the few wits she had left. Her lips parted instantly on impact and his tongue thrust deep into the moist hollow of her mouth. Her legs felt rubbery and unsteady, and she had to cling to him for support. Tyler supplied it by wrapping her in his arms, so close and so tight that she could feel the hard stirring of his flesh and the churning response of her own.
A responsive moan escaped from her throat and she pressed closer, feeling almost drunk as she clung to him. She felt the heat in her thighs, in her belly and breasts, burning and tingling along her every nerve. With a shuddering sigh, she melted against him in sweet, abject surrender.
Just as suddenly, his lips left hers and his arms fell away from her. Carrie wanted to cry out in protest. Swaying dizzily, her eyes flew open and she gazed up at Tyler to see him looking at her children, who had just burst noisily onto the scene with their aunt Alexa right behind them.
"Oh, don't mind us," Alexa said rather trenchantly. "You two friends just go on being friendly. The kids and I are headed upstairs to—"
"Alexa, I—we..." Flustered, flushed, Carrie let her voice trail off. She ran her hand through her hair, tousling it even more than Tyler had. "Tyler bought me an air conditioner. T—two of them."
Alexa raised her brows. "Well, wasn't that a friendly thing to do?"
"They needed it," Tyler said briskly. "After all, the pollen count and pollution index are at record highs and air conditioners are the first line of defense against allergies and asthma and—"
"Except none of us suffers from them," Carrie cut in. "Tyler, I really can't accept—"
"You can and you are," Tyler said flatly. "I'm going to give it to you and you're going to take it. Do you understand?"
His eyes seemed to bore into her, piercing her right to the core. Carrie swallowed hard, blushing, wondering what she could say, what she should do. She thought there was an underlying sexual connotation to his words, but maybe it was just her own fevered perceptions. When Tyler was around, her mind was clouded with sexual thoughts, references, deeds and needs
She sat down on the bottom step and reached out to catch one of the babies. She nabbed Dylan, lifted him onto her lap and tried to cuddle him.
"You look ready to keel over." Tyler's voice sounded above her head. "As soon as both units are installed, Alexa
and I are taking the kids to my pool to swim and you're going to your room to get some sleep, Carrie/'
"I'm impressed, Tyler. You bark out orders just like Dad, and you're not even in the military," Alexa said dryly.
"In the civilian business world, we call it 'making executive decisions.' And just like in the military, we in command expect to be obeyed." Tyler slipped his hands under Carrie's arms and effortlessly lifted her to her feet.
She clutched her small son, as her gaze locked with Tyler's. Her pupils were dilated, her heart was throbbing, her womb contracting with the memory of their hot kiss. Oh, how she wanted him. And she knew instinctively that the intensity of her passion transcended mere sexual desire. She was so very close to falling in love with the man ... if she wasn't already in love with him.
Carrie dropped her eyes, not wanting Tyler to read too much there. She felt like she was sailing into a wild, uncharted sea without direction, and when she tried to think of Ian, to steady her, to calm and guide her, Tyler's presence filled her mind and her senses, blocking out anyone and anything else.
"I dropped over to see if I could help with the kids," Ben said later that evening as he strolled jauntily into Carrie's living room where Alexa sat alone, reading. He screeched to an abrupt halt and did an unconsciously comic double take at the sight of the air conditioner humming in the window. "I thought it felt cooler in here!" he exclaimed. "I didn't feel like I was suffocating the minute I walked in the door."
Alexa put down her book and stood up. "The babies are in bed for the night, so you're a little late to help," she informed him. "And the air conditioner—there are two of them actually, this one and one in Carrie's room—are compliments of Tyler Tremaine."
Ben was incredulous. "He air-conditioned Carrie's house?"
''Right neighborly of him, wasn't it?" drawled Alexa.
"I'll say! And it saves me from telling Carrie that I couldn't get her that secondhand unit for her bedroom." Ben sank down onto the sofa and sighed appreciatively. "It's so cool and comfortable in here now. Coming over here is going to be—Alexa, thafs it!" He jumped to his feet, his blue eyes wide. "That's why he did it!"
"Could you be a little more specific, Ben? That's why who did what?"
"Tyler Tremaine hates the heat, and this place was megahot, so he set about changing things to suit himself. Why? Because he intends on spending a lot of time here this summer. A lot of time with Carrie, Alexa." Ben thrust his fist into the air in a gesture of victory. "Yes! She did it! She's got him hooked! A Tremaine! Do you know what this means, Alexa?"
Alexa stared at him impassively. "I can guess what you think it means for you, Ben. An office in the Tremaine Building with your name engraved on the door, your own personalized stationery and a fat expense account. Well, here's a word of advice—don't quit your current job just yet. So far, neither Carrie nor Tyler will admit to being anything more than friends."
Ben was undaunted. "It doesn't matter what they're saying, it can only mean that he's fallen hard for her. And the fact that Carrie accepted it means she's fallen for him, too."
"She really had no choice but to keep the air conditioners," Alexa pointed out. "The units were delivered here, and Tyler insisted that they be installed."
"Alexa, we both know Carrie well enough to know that she deals her own hand, so to speak. If she really wanted to blow off Tyler, she'd've single-handedly thrown those air conditioners out the windows and told him to get lost and stay lost. But she didn't!"
Ben flung himself down into a chair, draping his leg over the arm of it. "This Tyler Ttemaine connection of Carrie's benefits both of us, too, you know."
Alexa rolled her eyes heavenward. "While I can see how being related to a Tremaine would be useful to you in your advertising career, it really has nothing to do with me."
"Yes, it does, Alexa. Fve done some research on the Tremaines. Tyler just happens to have a younger brother who's single. Nathaniel Tremaine is thirty-two years old, handsome, bright and has never been married. Tyler and Carrie can arrange an introduction to him for you, and you can make your move. You're a knockout, sis. He'll fall for you like Tyler fell for Carrie, and then—"
"You're a lunatic, Ben," Alexa said, sighing with exasperation.
"I'm an optimist," Ben countered. "And maybe a bit of an opportunist, too, but that's not such a bad thing in these recessionary times." He glanced at his watch. "Well, if I'm not needed around here, I guess I'll be on my way. I have a date tonight."
" With Rhandee?"
"With Rhandee's roommate Darcy Lynn. I'm being passed around," he added rather proudly. He sauntered out, looking inordinately pleased with himself and the world in general.
"That's nothing to brag about, Ben," Alexa called after him, the disapproval in her tone unmistakable. Shaking her head, she reached for her book.
Nine
Ben's prediction that Tyler would be spending a lot of time in Carrie's newly air-conditioned house proved to be right on target. For the next several weeks, hardly a day went by that Carrie and the triplets didn't see Tyler. He arrived at their house after work to have dinner and spend the evening with them. They swam in his pool and he returned to their place for the children's bedtime rituals.
Tyler had always enjoyed business traveling, scheduling more trips tha
n necessary, but now being away had lost its allure. He cut way back on his travel schedule, taking advantage of teleconferences and fax machines; it was more cost-efficient and, most importantly, it kept him in town. With Carrie.
He was in town on weekends, too, going to Carrie's house before she left for the hospital, and he invariably ended up staying with the children after she'd gone. Tyler struck up a genuine friendship with Alexa, but Ben, who sometimes
dropped by, treated him with an ingratiating adulation that both irritated and amused him.
There was certainly nothing ingratiating or adulatory in the way Carrie treated him. If Tyler said or did something that she didn't like, she let him know it. Immediately. Still, considering their circumstances were so different, they were remarkably compatible and seemed to grow more so with each passing day. For two people who'd come from two such different worlds, they had a lot to talk about. Conversation flowed easily and naturally between them, but they also could be quietly companionable, enjoying each other in relaxed silence.
Not that silence reigned very often—not in a house with toddler triplets. The children were ever present, and Tyler's relationship with each one grew as the days flowed into weeks. He found himself looking forward to their greeting him at the door each evening, jabbering excitedly at the sight of him, pulling and tugging at him, demanding to be picked up. It was incredibly appealing to be welcomed so wholeheartedly, and Tyler found the entire "homecoming scene" impossible to resist.
He looked forward to seeing Carrie just as much, though she didn't fling herself at him at the door, the way her children did. But the sight of her smile and her blue eyes shining with warmth was a reward all its own. He'd thought she was attractive from the start, but she seemed to grow prettier daily. He found himself thinking about her often during the day, remembering previous conversations, anticipating new ones. In his head, he heard her laughter and saw the animation in her face, the alert intelligence gleaming in her eyes.
It was as if his mind had recorded and stored a thousand images of Carrie and he could call up any one of them as quickly as a computer locating a file. He visualized her face alive with tenderness and humor as she dealt with the triplets' antics, the way she rolled her eyes when Ben spouted
one of his more outrageous lines. He saw her pensive and earnest and even flushed with anger. All the images interested and excited him, but when he pictured her dreamy-eyed, her lips moist and parted, her blue eyes intense with desire, the way she'd looked every time they had kissed, his blood heated and his body grew hard.
But though he wanted her more than he had ever wanted any woman during his prolonged bachelorhood, he had yet to take Carrie to bed. It was most un-Tremainelike behavior to deny himself what he wanted most, and Tyler was loath to question why his sex life had unexpectedly gone chaste.
He told himself that his constitution was unable to handle any more of the frustrating stop-starts that had plagued his and Carrie's earlier lovemaking attempts. If the children or Alexa or Ben weren't around to interrupt them, there was always the ghost of the sainted Ian Wilcox to be invoked, so why begin at all?
After all, there were viable alternatives to keeping his sexual energy in check. Tyler stepped up his exercise regime at his club, increased his racquetball, golf and tennis playing times and took frequent, lengthy cold showers. The other alternative, to cool his passion with other women while keeping his relationship with Carrie platonic, held no appeal for him. It was unthinkable—repugnant, even.
He was not only taking a sabbatical from dating, he also was taking a sabbatical from sex, Tyler decided. Now if only his celibate life-style would free him from his desire for the one woman he dreamed about day and night.
So far, it hadn't. The more time he spent with Carrie, the more he wanted her. She was affectionate by nature and seemed to think nothing of touching him, leaning against him, even throwing her arms around him for an occasional, spontaneous hug. Tyler responded in kind, draping his arm around her, taking her hand to hold. Not a day passed that didn't include some physical contact with Car-
rie, but Tyler didn't attempt to cany it further. He didn't pull her into his arms for one of those scorching kisses that had the power to send them both reeling, He might stare at the slender curve of her neck, at her breasts and her hips and her legs, but he didn't touch.
He didn't dare. The feelings he had for Carrie were so intense he sometimes felt overwhelmed^ the emotions she evoked within him were so utterly unlike anything he had ever experienced that he didn't dare risk combining them with the ferocious power of sex. He'd never been as close to any woman as he was to Carrie, and adding passion and sex augured an intimacy he could not yet handle. Instead, he took refuge in the more comfortable fiction of his sexual sabbatical with his good friend and neighbor Carrie Shaw Wilcox.
The Fourth of July fell on a Wednesday, providing a holiday in the middle of the week, rather than the three-day holiday weekend Tyler would have preferred. Still, he had plans which he shared with Carrie.
"I have a beach house in Rehoboth. Just a small place, nothing fancy," he told her the Monday evening before the holiday, as they floated side by side in his pool. She was pulling Emily on a pink plastic surfboard with a built-in seat, and he tugged Franklin and Dylan in the little blow-u] boat. *'Since you finally have a weekend off, I thought we'c take the kids down there. We can leave Friday night and come back Sunday evening."
He didn't add that he hadn't been to the beach at all this summer, that he'd been fielding calls from friends, acquaintances and would-be sycophants who wanted to know why Tyler Tremaine, usually a weekend fixture at the Del-> aware shore and a major player on the summer party scene, had been conspicuously absent from his seasonal stomping grounds. If they all knew he'd been spending his weekends with his next-door neighbor's children—while their mother
was at work—they wouldn't have believed it. Sometimes, he still didn't believe it, either.
"We'll leave late Friday, to beat the weekend traffic on the Bay Bridge, 1 ' Tyler continued. "Around ten o'clock."
Carrie pushed her wet hair from her face. "Oh, Tyler, I don't think so."
"They'll love it, Carrie. The house is right on the beach. They can play in the sand and in the ocean and there's a small boardwalk with kiddie rides and—"
"But it takes over two hours to get there. They've never been in a car for that long a drive. And where will they sleep and eat, once we're there? There are no cribs or high chairs. It would be impossible. No, Tyler. Thank you, but we just can't-"
"Carrie, we're going," he said firmly. "I've been thinking about it. These children never go anywhere, not even to the supermarket. And while I can understand how it would've been overwhelming—and way too difficult—to take them out when they were infants, they're getting older now."
"They come here, to your pool," Carrie reminded him. "You even let them inside your house now and then," she added, smiling.
"And think how much they love to come over here, because it's a change, it's something different. They're bright, curious kids and they should be exposed to other things, to other places and more people. They'll be stunted, emotionally and intellectually, if they never leave their house and don't see anyone but you and me and Alexa and Ben."
She stared at him thoughtfully. "I—think you might be right. No, I know you are. In fact, what you've said sounds like something my father might say."
"You mean I'm on the same wavelength as Colonel Shaw?" Tyler feigned shock. "Now there's food for thought."
Game laughed. "Don't let Ben's exaggerated stories about Dad fool you. My father is very smart and very strong. You'd like him. In fact, I think the two of you are a lot alike."
"High praise indeed from a dyed-in-the-wool daddy's girl," Tyler said lightly. "Alexa and Ben have told me more than once that you're the colonel's favorite.'-
Carrie splashed water at him. "That's absurd. Our parents have no favorites. What other stuff do you and Alexa and Ben
talk about when I'm not around to defend myself?"
"Mmm, wouldn't you like to know?" he teased. "So, we're on for this weekend then? We can rent cribs and high chairs down there. As for the length of the drive... since we'll be leaving later, the kids will probably sleep the whote way."
Carrie nodded her head. "Tyler, do you think I'm over-protective?" she asked a moment later. "You know, a—a smothering type of mother?"
"Of course not. It's natural for the mother to want to keep her babies close."
"And I guess it's the father's role to make sure the kids get to interact with others and get out of the nest and into the world little by little," Carrie replied, then realized what she'd said, how it sounded. Tyler was not her children's father/
It would be a grave mistake on her part to let herself think of him as a surrogate daddy. After all x he had told her in no I uncertain terms that he didn't want to play that role. But | that seemed like ages ago; words spoken by another man about hypothetical children that had nothing to do with Tyler and the triplets.
These past weeks, she and the children had come to count on Tyler being around, to look forward to seeing him stride | up the walk or through the gap in the backyard hedge at the
end of his workday. On the rare evenings he had late meetings or business-related dinners, they missed him. Terribly.
Carrie didn't ask Tyler why he was spending so much time with them. She suspected that he himself didn't know, that being with her and the triplets was something of a lark or a whim for him. A temporary one, to be sure, despite Ben's embarrassingly obvious expectations for the relationship. Carrie entertained no such delusions; though she knew she was in love with Tyler, she foresaw no fairy-tale ending.
Only an ending. A painful one for both her and the trip? lets who loved "Ty r " too. What were they going to do when he stopped coming? And he'd stop coming sooner rather than later, if she continued to blurt out heavy-duty "daddy" expectations such as that last comment!
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