Cover to Covers (28 page)

“If I have any more conventions.
It might be a while before I can get set up with another publisher.”

Tyler playfully frowned, as if deep in thought. “Perhaps I should start a publishing company and then you could write whatever you wanted.”

The suggestion made Monique laugh with exuberance, and Tyler savored the way her eyes disappeared behind her wide smile.

“Now that would really send Chris over the edge,” she extolled
as her laughter abated.

“Might be worth it. The arrogant ass.”

She patted his chest. “He thought you were arrogant. He said so that day you came to the convention.”

“I hope you defended me.”

She shrugged, grinning. “To a point.”

Tyler
’s hands snuck beneath Monique’s T-shirt. “You’ll pay for that.” He began tickling her sides.

“No, not that!” Monique squealed
, wiggling in his arms. “You know I can’t stand to be tickled.”

“I remember you were particularly ticklish right here.” Tyler
glided his fingertips over her flat stomach.

Monique screamed and bent over, trying to pull away from his hands. But Tyler held on to her, tickling her relentlessly up and down her sides and along her stomach. Darting away from him, she took off running out of the kitchen,
giggling as she went.

Tyler pursued her with Bart trotting behind him. He finally caught her on the stairs, just as she was starting up the steps.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, holding her against him.

When he looked down
at her face, her eyes were on fire and her cheeks were burning with color. Unable to resist, he touched his mouth to her full, pink lips and his arms instinctively tightened around her. Her kisses became overwhelming for Tyler. She tasted of wine, and her lips were so soft that he heard himself moan as she opened her mouth for him. Deciding he could not wait anymore, he pushed her down on the steps.

She laughed as
he struggled to pull his T-shirt over his head. “What about the bedroom?”

He put his arms about her. “
I can’t wait that long. I want you now, Moe.”

When he kissed her again, the passion in her lips was so intense that Tyler forgot where they were. He removed her T-shirt,
and she helped him slide the heavy fabric of her baggy blue jeans down her hips. Tyler let his lips slowly travel over the contours of her breasts and stomach, relishing every inch of her sweet-smelling skin. As she reclined back on the steps, he unzipped his fly and wriggled his jeans and briefs down his hips. Kissing her gently, he threw her beige silk panties to the side, and then wrapped her legs about his waist. When he entered her, Monique’s eyes were filled with such warmth and affection that he could not look away.

Tenderly, he made love to her on the stairs
, taking his time to please her. Monique met his every thrust with her hips, and as that delightful heat spread through his muscles, his desire rose. He cradled her in his arms, concentrating on holding back, waiting for her pleasure to come first. When she sucked in a breath and trembled against him, Tyler let go, slamming his hips into her. As the tingle running from his loins turned into an unstoppable rush of electricity, he curled against her, grunting right at the moment of his release. She kissed his cheek and held him while the last vestiges of his climax rocked his body.

They lay on the steps
for several minutes, clinging to each other, as if cherishing their last seconds together.

“We should do it that way from now on,” she
murmured against him. “It’s never been so intense between us.”

He settled against her and the peace that had pervaded his restless mind during their lovemaking was soon
pushed aside by his nagging sense of guilt.  

“We are just getting better together, that’s all,” he
explained.

She made no attempt to argue, and simply ran her hands over his wavy hair. Then, the ringing of his cell phone could be heard from his room down the hall.

Her body sank back on the steps. “Do you ever get a break?”

He sat up on the step beside her, pulling up his jeans
and briefs. “Not when there is a crisis brewing.”

“How often does that happen?”

“Seems like every day,” he sighed.

As
Monique tugged her T-shirt over her head, Tyler scooped up her jeans and underwear from a lower step. He kissed her on the neck and took her hand. When she stood beside him, Tyler placed her clothes in her arms.

“Let me see who that is.”

She nodded. “I’ll be in the shower.”

H
e patted her round behind. “Save some hot water for me.”

After she had t
rotted up the stairs, Tyler bent over and retrieved his T-shirt. Shaking his head, he slowly ascended the steps, wishing that he had turned off his cell phone so they could have had a few more minutes together before his harsh world had intruded.

Chapter 2
1

After throwing on his jeans and fresh long-sleeved shirt, Tyler quietly maneuvered down the staircase with his overnight bag slung over his shoulder and his black suitcase in his hand. He had been very careful that morning to slip out of Monique’s bed without disturbing her, wanting to let her sleep in, and also hoping to avoid a painful good-bye. He tiptoed through the darkened house to the front door. In the entranceway, he glanced up the stairs and was alarmed to see Bart staring at him from the top step.

Holding his finger to his lips, he urged Bart not to make a sound. The dog
angled his head to the side as if debating whether or not to alert the household of the interloper’s plans. Eventually satisfied that Bart would not betray him, Tyler headed to the front door.

He
unlocked the deadbolt, and was about to open the door when he heard Bart’s feet tipping on the hardwood floor next to him. Looking down, he saw the dog gazing up at him with his red tongue hanging from the side of his mouth.

“Take care of her,” he whispered.

Bart sneezed and had a seat on the floor. Tyler figured that was Bart’s way of saying good-bye, or perhaps good riddance, he was not sure.

When he
closed the front door, Tyler let out a relieved sigh that he had been able to get away without seeing her one last time. It had been hard enough to leave her warm, lithe body beneath the sheets of her bed, but if he had to look into her eyes and say good-bye, he might not have been able to go.

Waiting on the street was a black Town
Car, its headlights sending out bright beams into the dusky light enveloping the street. A very tall man, dressed in black trousers and a white shirt, stepped from the car when Tyler made his way down the porch steps.

The driver
took Tyler’s suitcase. “I’m Conner, Mr. Moore. Clark sends his apologies, but he had another ride this morning.”

“Thank you, Conner.” Tyler went to the open back passenger door and
shoved his overnight bag along the back seat.

Gazing
back at the house, he longed to see Monique standing on the porch or peeking out from a window, but the three-story home was dark and lifeless. With a heavy heart, he climbed into the back of the car and shut the door.

“Did you have a pleasant stay in New Orleans, Mr. Moore?” Conner
inquired when he settled in behind the wheel.

Tyler smiled politely for his driver. “Yes, Conner, thank you.” He
peered out the window to Monique’s front door. “I had the time of my life.”

***

Tyler was waiting in the office of the hangar used by Propel at Love Field while the company jet went through a pre-flight check. The coffee he had been sipping was lukewarm and his patience was waning as he waited for Marty and his co-pilot, Frank, to finish up. He had changed in the hangar restroom from his casual jeans to the gray business suit Lynn had dropped off, in preparation for his flight to Oklahoma. But as the morning temperatures rose, his suit was becoming rather uncomfortable.

Beyond the
wide office window, Tyler watched as smaller private planes took off from the runway between the larger jets of Southwest Airlines. Distorting ripples of heat rising from the runway almost made the solid cement appear as if it were buckling beneath the glare of the excruciating summer sun. Tyler checked his gold Italian watch again, wondering what was taking so long. He needed to get in the air soon in order to make his afternoon meeting with state representative, Hal Askew.

He was about to return to the hangar behind him to find out what the hold up was when his cell phone
rang inside his jacket pocket. His heart froze when Monique’s name and number appeared on the caller ID.

“Hey, Moe,” he softly said, taking the call.

“You didn’t wake me. I wanted to say good-bye.”

He
lowered his head to the faded linoleum floor. “If you had been awake, I might never have been able to say good-bye. It was hard enough leaving your naked body in that bed.”

“When I woke up, I was disappointed to find Bart and not you next to me.”

He pressed the toe of his black loafer into a gouge on the floor. “Yeah, well, I think Bart was glad to see me go. Now he has you all to himself again.”

“Guess what I am doing right now?”

He closed his eyes and pictured her pink lips. “I have no idea.”

“I’m going through a
package delivered to me this morning from that picture shop we visited in the Quarter. There is just one thing. There are over twenty-five matted photos in this box, in addition to the framed one you bought me. Do you want to tell me how this happened?”

“I
know how much you like those old pictures of New Orleans, so I arranged to buy the entire collection for you.”

“You shouldn’t have done that
, Ty. This must have cost a fortune.”

“You’re worth it.”

She giggled and Tyler ached at the sound. “Where am I going to put all of these?”

“You’ll find room.” He heard a door to the office shut behind him and when Tyler turned, Marty
was waiting patiently for him to finish on the phone. “I’ve got to go. My plane is ready,” he told her.

“You’re not in Oklahoma yet?”

“Not yet. I’ll call you later tonight, after I get settled in my hotel.” He did not want to hang up, but Oklahoma was waiting. “I’ve got to go, Moe.”

“Just call when you want to, Ty.” Monique
quickly hung up.

Tyler
gripped his iPhone. This was turning out to be harder than he expected.

“We’re ready to go, Mr. Moore,” Marty
reported. “Sorry about the wait.”

Tyler
inspected the round grease stain on Marty’s white button-down shirt. “What was the problem?”

“We had
trouble with the fuel gauge, but it’s fixed now.”

Tyler slung
his overnight bag over his shoulder. “How long until we reach Oklahoma?”

“An hour, Mr. Moore.”

Tyler walked purposefully for the door that led to the open hanger. “Let’s get moving. I’ve got a full agenda for the afternoon.”

“Yes, sir.” Marty
collected Tyler’s suitcase by the office door. “It’s a shame your vacation got cut short,” he added.

Unhinged by his statement, Tyler wheeled around and faced his pilot. “What makes you think my vacation got cut short? Maybe I needed it to end.”

Marty shifted the suitcase from one hand to the other, wrinkling his brow at Tyler. “You needed it to end? I don’t understand, Mr. Moore.”

Tyler realized what he had said and
silently cursed his inability to reign in his emotions. Waving toward the sleek white jet standing outside of the hangar, Tyler tried to allay his pilot’s concern. “Never mind, Marty. Let’s just get in the air.”

As Tyler
proceeded toward the plane, he could feel that familiar knot in his chest returning. He had forgotten the sensation while he was with Monique in New Orleans, but now that he was back in his world his old self began to re-emerge.

He
had lived out the perfect fantasy, and he did not want to destroy his illusions by scrambling schedules, meeting for trysts in hotel rooms, and generally fitting her in until she grew tired of it all; or worse, until he grew tired of her. That was what he really feared…moving ahead with her only to discover she would end up becoming just like every other woman he knew. He did not want what they had shared to become part of a long list of forgettable memories. No, it was best to put Monique behind him. He had lived his dream, now it was time to return to his reality.

***

From the moment his Embraer Phenom 100 jet landed on the runway in Oklahoma City, Tyler was on the move. After being whisked away by a limousine to the offices of the state capital, he spent the rest of the day meeting with Hal Askew, his aides, and a few of the state legislators who supported his pipeline project.