Seduction by Design Read Online Free Page B

colorless one. What would he do to that world?
    As if on cue, the telephone rang again. Her hand hovered above it, dreading to answer it, knowing instinctively who was calling. She was right.
    “Miss Ashton,” he said immediately after she said a low hello. “Tyler Scott.”
    “Yes, Mr. Scott. How is Faith?”
    “Fine. I’m calling for another reason. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
    Was he serious? How could he pleasantly ask if it were a bad time when he was calling to fire her? “N … no. I was just lying down resting.”
    A significant pause yawned between them along the connecting cables. It was a silence that didn’t need to be filled. It was already rife with innuendo. “Oh?” he asked on a lilting note. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
    The insinuation was so bold, so blatant, so sexual that she sucked in her breath sharply. “No, Mr. Scott, you did not,” she said firmly.
    “My condolences. See me tomorrow at one o’clock in Sanders’s office. Good night.”
    Outraged, she slammed down the phone. It had already gone dead in her hand. Damn him! How dare he infer anything about her personal life? And even if his sullied mind made such inferences, how dare he speak them out loud? She’d let him know in no uncertain terms what she thought of his seedy insinuations when she saw him.
    Tomorrow.
    What was he planning to do, to say? Why was he keeping her on pins and needles worrying about her job? Why didn’t he take whatever action he planned to take and get it over with?
    Forgoing the omelet, she stalked into her bathroom. She wouldn’t have trouble finding another job. Not with her experience. Why should she care what he did? Let him fire her. Let him have his job. Could he do any better at it than she? “Not on your life, Mr. Scott,” she shouted to the bathroom walls.
    What she needed was a fling. Something unheard of. Even scandalous. She longed to do something totally unexpected and impulsive. Hailey Ashton had always been depended on to do the right thing, to behave properly. She always had, and she was sick of it. When had she ever disappointed, surprised, shocked anyone? Never. Such a thing would be good for her. What should it be? Rob a bank? Run naked through the streets? Have an affair?
    Her head came up with a snap to look at her reflection in the mirror over the basin. Where had such an idea come from? She didn’t know. Nor could she imagine what prompted the next thought that forced its way to the front of her mind. I
wonder what Tyler Scott thinks of me as a woman?
    Purely objectively, he
was
an exceedingly attractive man, if the strong, domineering type happened to appeal to you. His handsome features radiated raw masculinity, yet Hailey had seen a ghost of a smile when he talked about his insecurities as a parent. The steeliness of his eyes was intimidating, but they had softened and grown warm when he looked at Faith.
    But the censorious looks he had leveled at her had hardly suggested barely contained lust! She laughed to herself. Of course, there was that brief moment when his eyes wandered in the vicinity of her breasts as he read her name tag, but that couldn’t count. She had only imagined that it took an inordinate amount of time for him to read her name.
    Then there was that small space of time that seemed to span infinity when he actually touched her, when his hard thumb evocatively imbedded itself in the softness of her palm. Could he have detected the racing pulse in the wrist beneath his grasp?
    Impatiently she switched off her bedside lamp, hoping that she might switch off the ridiculous conjectures that were flashing through her mind like an erotic slide show. Darkness didn’t dispel them, however. Rather it seemed to intensify them as she tossed restlessly on her pillow. When at last she fell asleep, her body was still flushing hotly.
    In her dreams it was she who was hurt and Tyler who did the tender healing. His touch was gentle, but