Triple treat (15 page)

He hadn't considered such an option until now, but it suddenly seemed an excellent idea. He could use a break from his social life which had inexplicably become tedious rather than fun.

"Well, time for me to go," he said, glancing at his watch.

Emily dropped her spoon and it clattered to the floor. "No go!" she exclaimed, screwing up her face to cry again. "No, no go."

Alexa had freed Dylan and Franklin from their high chairs, and they watched their sister cling to Tyler. Suddenly Dylan crawled under the table, bellowing "No!" and Franklin began to cry.

"They don't want you to go," Alexa said, astonished. She stared from the toddlers to Tyler. "They really like you." She sounded flabbergasted at the notion.

Tyler didn't hold it against her. His popularity with Carrie's children would mystify his own family as well since he rarely paid the slightest attention to the youngest generation of Tremaines. But Dylan, Emily and Franklin were different from any other children he'd ever met. They were cuter. Funnier. More interesting. He couldn't explain why, but they just were.

"I'll stay until they're in bed," he offered. Granted, it was an unorthodox way for him to spend a Saturday night, but the evening was still young; he'd have plenty of time to do something later. And he couldn't bring himself to disappoint his little fan club,

"So he stayed and helped you put the kids to bed?" Carrie repeated incredulously. She'd arrived home from the hospital an hour ago and was sipping iced tea in the backyard with Alexa while watching the triplets play.

Alexa nodded. "Then he left. He seems to genuinely like the kids, Carrie. They're certainly crazy about him. What's been going on around here, anyway?"

"I don't know," Carrie murmured. She rubbed her temples with her fingers. She'd been awake for over twenty-four hours straight and was feeling the peculiar disorienting effects of sleep deprivation. The children were always awake by the time she got home in the morning and wanted her attention. She couldn't rush off to her bedroom and sleep without spending some time with them first.

"Tyler says he's taken a sabbatical from dating," Alexa said, glancing sidelong at her sister. "I wonder why."

"Who knows?" Carrie shrugged. Did his unsatisfactory evening with Gwenda have anything to do with it? Whatever his reason, one thing was very clear—if Tyler wasn't dating, he wasn't pursuing other women. Carrie felt a surge of glee, though she deliberately concealed it from her sister.

"I guess it does explain why he's been coming around here, though," mused Alexa. "Spending time with the triplets is about as far from dating as one could possibly get-Carrie felt deflated. "That's true," she admitted.

"But you're here, too." Alexa stared at her sister. "When he's here, he is spending time with you as well as the kids. That could mean—"

"We—Tyler and I—are just friends, Alexa."

"Mmm-hmm. That's what he said."

"Ty, Ty, Ty!" The children's voices rose into a chorus of delighted shrieks and squeals, drawing Carrie's and Alexa's attention to the hedge, where Tyler had appeared. He was wearing a pair of comfortably baggy shorts and a loose-fitting white shirt.

"I thought I heard the posse at play back here," he said, stopping to scoop up all three children in his arms. He was ridiculously pleased they'd remembered his name, which they seemed to have picked up all on their own yesterday.

He started across the yard toward Carrie but she met him in the middle of it.

The mere sight of him made her restless and edgy—hot, even. And not from the eighty-plus degrees already registering on the thermometer.

"Looks like you—uh—captured the whole posse single-handedly," she said huskily.

"Do I get a reward?" His tone was suggestive, his green eyes glittering.

Carrie felt a flush of heat suffuse her. She felt soft and weak and half-dizzy from fatigue. Hardly an ideal state; she needed to be at the peak of her wits to deal with Tyler.

"Where's your snappy comeback?" Tyler demanded. "You're rarely without one."

"Well, this is one of those rare times. I'm temporarily out of quips."

"You look exhausted," Tyler said bluntly. But the dark violet circles under her eyes gave her an aura of fragility, somehow heightening her appeal. He wondered if there were any circumstances where he wouldn't find her desirable.

"We had a wild night last night," she told him. "Four deliveries, including a set of twins and two first-time mothers in their forties."

Tyler shuddered. "Kindly spare me the gynecological horror stories." The triplets began to squirm, and he obligingly set them on their feet. They wandered off toward their makeshift sandpile in the corner of the yard.

"I came over to tell you that a truck is parked in front of your house and a couple guys are heading to your front door. Looks like they're making a delivery," he added.

"That can't be," Carrie said. At the same moment, Alexa called, "Carrie, someone's ringing the bell. Want me to answer it or stay here with the kids?"

"I'll get it," Carrie replied, going through the house to the front door. Tyler followed her. "There must be some mistake. I haven't ordered anything."

Two deliverymen stood on her front porch with a large box between them. "Bring it on in," Tyler ordered. "Take it upstairs, second room on the right."

"But—what—?" Carrie spluttered. Tyler fastened his hands around her shoulders and maneuvered her aside, out of the men's way. "Tyler, I didn't buy anything!"

"No, but I did. That's your air conditioner. They're going to install it in your bedroom window. There's a bigger model they'll install next in the living room. It has enough BTUs to cool the entire downstairs."

Carrie gaped at him. It took a full minute to regain her power of speech, but she finally managed to gasp, "You bought me an air conditioner?"

"Two of them. Room-sized window units."

"But you can't do that!"

"Why can't I? It doesn't look like brother Ben is going to come through with that secondhand deal you mentioned, and we're in the middle of a heat wave." He started toward the stairs. "I'm going to go up and make sure they're in—"

"Tyler, wait." Carrie grabbed his arm with both hands, halting him. "Ifs very generous of you, but I—I can't accept air conditioners from you!"

"Why not? An air conditioner is hardly a personal, intimate gift like lingerie. Something like that would imply-well, you know what lingerie implies. But what's an air conditioner between friends?"

"Tyler, people do not go around giving other people air conditioners! It—it just isn't done!"

He shrugged lazily. "Maybe I'll start a new trend. I've always been on the cutting edge." He glanced down at her hands, which were clutching his arm. "Are you going to let go or am I going to drag you along with me?"

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."