Seduction by design, p.2
Seduction by Design, page 2
“She’s in the treatment room,” she replied and went to a refrigerator on the opposite wall. “I told her I’d bring her a Coke.”
“A Coke!” he exploded. “She’s drinking a Coke at a time like this?”
Hailey calmly ignored him as she flipped off the tab on the can and carried it without another word into the other room. Faith was sitting on the examination table reading the anti-smoking posters on the wall and swinging her long, thin legs.
“Thank you,” she said politely when Hailey handed her the drink.
Hailey eyed the girl carefully as she asked, “Faith, where is your mother?”
Faith lowered her head and mumbled into her chest, “She died. A few months ago.” Hailey had thought as much. “I think I should tell your father about the stings, don’t you?” Faith nodded and Hailey patted the girl on her bare knee before slipping through the door again and shutting it firmly behind her.
Faith’s father was sitting on the edge of the imitation leather sofa, but he bolted off it when Hailey closed the door. “You may want to sit back down,” she said. “I have a form to fill out.”
She went behind the desk, trying not to notice that he was fuming. She took the necessary accident report form out of the desk drawer and put it into the typewriter.
“Now, what—”
“To hell with your bloody forms, Miss Ashton. I want to know about my daughter—now.” The voice wasn’t as loud or exasperated as it had been earlier. But it was twice as deadly. He had moved away from the couch to stand directly beside her.
She looked up at him. He was leaning on his palms, his arms spread wide as he bent over the desk. His face was close to hers. Alarmingly close. For the first time, she saw him as a man, and not a contrary guest who had turned an otherwise routine day into a calamitous one.
His arresting eyes were as cold and determined as she had noticed before. His nose was long and slender and flared slightly at the nostrils. His mouth was wide; it was thinned now in a resolute expression, but when relaxed it would be full and sensuous. His chin and jaw were hard and stubborn and indicated a force of will dangerous to anyone brave enough to parry with it. His hair was still mussed, but lay against his head in well-cut strands that were attractively streaked with silver at the temples.
A blue polo shirt stretched across his wide chest and the muscles of his tanned upper arms. His casual slacks, a darker blue than his shirt, fit easily over his taut, narrow hips and hard thighs. At the base of his leanly corded neck, through the open collar of his shirt, Hailey could see a hint of the dark hair that surely matted the awesomely masculine chest.
Leaning over her as he was, he was much more intimidating than he had been when she was surrounded by a crowd of people. His strength and purpose were nothing to tangle with. Only a fool would try. His very maleness was a palpable force. She swallowed and, relying on her professional demeanor, said, “Faith was stung by a bee. I have applied an antiseptic-analgesic ointment to the bites. She’s resting.“
His breath escaped with a sigh of relief. He straightened, wiping his damp forehead with the back of his hand. When he had realized that his daughter was in no real danger, Hailey again fell victim to his impaling, incisive eyes. “What the hell was all the fuss about then? Why didn’t she just tell me what had happened to her instead of running away and hiding like that?”
“The bee flew under her blouse. It stung her on her breast.” She looked at him steadily. He stared back at her. No emotion was apparent in his gray eyes or on his firm mouth. “Your daughter is becoming a young lady, Mr.—”
“Scott.”
“Mr. Scott. She’s naturally self-conscious about the changes her body is undergoing. Being frightened by pain, she was mortified by the location of the stings and too embarrassed to tell you.”
“But that’s crazy. I know what a female breast looks like.”
For some reason Hailey didn’t want to put a name to, she suddenly became hot and breathless. She ridiculed herself for acting as juvenile as Faith.
“It may be crazy to you, Mr. Scott, but to an impressionable, sensitive girl Faith’s age, it would have been devastating to … to show herself to you.”
“I’m her father,” he said, his impatience with female logic apparent.
“Even so, Mr. Scott. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but please try. Faith is very upset. She’s afraid you’ll be angry with her.”
He cursed under his breath and flung himself down on the sofa again. He stroked his stubborn chin several times with a frustrated hand. He was a man striving to understand something he had no experience of. When he looked up at Hailey again, she saw something softening in his steely gray eyes. “I guess I overreacted as violently as Faith.”
Hailey treated him to a real smile. “That’s understandable. Forgive me, but I asked Faith about her mother. She told me that you have recently lost your wife.”
“She wasn’t my wife.” Seeing Hailey’s sudden loss of color and the stunned expression on her face, he clarified his remark. “She was my wife when Faith was born, but we were divorced soon after. Faith lived with her mother all that time. Monica was killed in a boating accident several months ago and Faith came to live with me.” His hard mouth slanted in a self-deprecating smile. “I’m still learning about parenting, you see.”
Hailey glanced down at her hands, then shyly back up at him. “Single-parenting is an unenviable job for anyone. Under the circumstances I can see why you and Faith both would have adjustments to make.”
Why was she talking to this man so candidly about such a personal subject? Still, he had initiated it, hadn’t he? Dare she give him one more word of unasked-for advice? “Please remember one thing, there is nothing more patience-taxing, sensitive, or emotionally delicate than an adolescent girl.”
His thick brows lowered over eyes sparkling now with mischief. “Except an adolescent boy trying to make a move on an adolescent girl.”
Dark lashes momentarily screened Hailey’s green eyes. A blush colored her cheeks, so recently pale, with flattering color. Rather than meet his probing eyes, she turned back to the typewriter and, in a no-nonsense voice, said, “I must get back to my office, but first I have to complete this form.” She set the proper margin on the typewriter, then inquired tersely, “Your full name?”
“Scott. Tyler Scott.”
Her hands froze on the keys. Her mouth went as dry as cotton. Her heart leaped into her throat. Her whole body shook with a slight tremor.
In her peripheral vision she saw Tyler Scott get up off the sofa and walk around the desk to stand directly in front of her. Her upraised eyes took in the designer belt at his waist, his long, tapering torso, and impressive chest, the tanned column of his throat.
When her eyes locked with his as he stared down at her, she quailed under his triumphant expression. “That’s right, Miss Ashton,” he said softly. “I own this place.”
CHAPTER 2
The accident report form was ripped out of the typewriter without the benefit of the paper release. With an accuracy that would have made Wilt Chamberlain applaud, the viciously balled-up paper was sent sailing through the air into the dead center of a metal trash can.
“I think we can dispense with the mandatory report this time, don’t you, Miss Ashton?” he asked coolly. “After all, the accident forms eventually wind up on my desk and I already know the details of this incident. I hardly think Serendipity can be held responsible for the actions of one lone bee, who was only doing what comes naturally to bees. I will, however, see that the flowering shrubs are sprayed one more time before the park closes for the season to prevent something like this from happening again.”
As he talked, he paced around the office, hands in his pockets, studying with infinite interest the posters and notices tacked to the wall. Hailey sat petrified at the typewriter. What had she said to this man? Had she been rude? Yes, she had been. She had deliberately withheld information about his daughter. She had made him walk all the way from the Sidewinder to the center of the compound. God, she’d be lucky to have her job this time tomorrow. He might fire her right now.
“What I do have to consider carefully, however, is how my employees responded to an emergency situation. I’d be derelict in my responsibility to Serendipity’s guests if I didn’t, wouldn’t I?”
For the first time since he had identified himself, Hailey spoke, and her voice was little more than a croak. “Yes, you would,” she agreed dismally. Here it comes, she thought. He’ll either chew me out and put me on probation or he’ll dismiss me outright. But he’d been damned provoking! she defended herself righteously.
Bracing herself for his lecture, she was surprised when he went toward the door of the treatment room and tapped lightly. “Faith? Are you all right now? I’m still waiting for that ride on the Sidewinder.”
The door opened and a chagrined Faith walked out. Tyler Scott smiled at her gently and chucked her under the chin. “Hi. You had me worried. Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes, Daddy. I’m sorry I acted so dumb. I was too … I mean … It was …”
“No need to explain. Miss Ashton has done that for you. Thank her now, and let’s go. Unless you want to spend the rest of the day in the infirmary,” he teased.
“No.” Faith giggled. She looked like she might reach around her father’s waist and hug him, but she didn’t. Instead, she turned to Hailey, who was still seated in the chrome and plastic chair with the squeaky casters as if she had been fixed there permanently.
“Thank you, Hailey. Gee, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along. You’re super.”
“Thank you for the compliment. I’m glad I was available. Do you think your stings will hurt you anymore before you get home?”
“No, they don’t hurt at all.”
“Watch them for swelling or additional redness. Some insect bites can be serious.” Hard as it was, she faced the flinty eyes that she could feel boring into her. “You may want to pick up some kind of analgesic ointment for her, Mr. Scott.”
“Very good advice, Miss Ashton. What kind?”
Hastily she scribbled the name of a salve on a piece of paper and extended it to him. Instead of taking the paper, his strong fingers wrapped around her wrist. “I’ll be in touch,” he said in a low, threatening voice. For emphasis, his thumb stroked upward and pressed the center of her palm. It wasn’t until he had taken the slip of paper with his other hand, that her wrist was freed.
“Faith?” He opened the door and ushered his daughter out into the heat while Hailey shivered with a cold foreboding.
How could she have made such an atrocious blunder? From the first time she saw Tyler Scott, he had irritated her. She had been rude to him. She had taken a perverse pleasure in increasing his anxiety. She had felt a smug satisfaction at making him walk when there was plenty of room for him to ride in the golf cart. Spitefulness didn’t usually characterize Hailey Ashton.
She wrote the nurse a note explaining briefly what had happened and left the infirmary. Should she call the other department heads and warn them that their employer was in the park? No. She had already gotten Mr. Scott’s ire up. Until she heard from him, she’d keep a low profile and only hope that her colleagues fared better should they encounter the owner of the park.
She walked through the compound quickly, not having to concentrate on where she was going. For the past four years Serendipity had been her turf. She knew its walkways, its waterways, its shops, eateries, theaters, and other attractions like the back of her hand. To do her job well, she had acquainted herself with every aspect of the park’s operation.
Doing things well was Hailey’s most ardent ambition. She was known for her competence. Wouldn’t everyone be surprised when they learned that she had lost her job for bullying a guest who just happened to be Tyler Scott?
She had been at Serendipity for a year when it was sold to Scott Enterprises of Atlanta and it became only a small part of that huge conglomerate. The Scott empire included real estate companies, sawmills, a computer firm, a shopping center, a housing development, as well as various other properties.
It was a standing joke around Serendipity that Tyler Scott wasn’t a real person, but rather a generic name given to a group of doddering old men. Since no one had ever seen him, and all his business transactions were conducted by a battery of subordinates, it was speculated that Tyler Scott, the man, didn’t exist.
Hailey’s private smile was rueful. Tyler Scott was most definitely a man. In no way could the adjective “doddering” be used to describe him, not with those shoulders and that chest. No, he had been all too real.
What would such a man do with an employee who was supposedly an expert in handling the guests of his multiacre amusement park, whose sole purpose was to see to the guests’ well-being and enjoyment, but instead had behaved in a curt, uncompromising, unsympathetic way? What indeed?
It was after nine o’clock when she finally arrived home. Her last official duty of the day had been to see that all one hundred and thirty Boy Scouts on a special field trip were given Serendipity bumper stickers, which they promptly began sticking to each other.
Her sandals were left at the front door, her blazer was dropped on a chair. Automatically going into the kitchen, she checked the refrigerator to see what forgotten treasure she might uncover, but was vastly disappointed. Another omelet tonight, she groaned mentally as she made her way down the darkened hallway toward her bedroom.
She had just stripped out of her uniform when the telephone rang. “Hello.”
“Will you accept the charges on a call from Ellen Ashton?”
“Yes,” Hailey replied wearily.
“Hi, sis.”
Hailey was annoyed that Ellen had called collect again, but pushed aside her uncharitable thoughts with a guilty sigh. Just because she had had a terrible day, that didn’t mean she should take her frustrations out on her sister.
“Hi, Ellen. What’s going on?” She knew before asking that she was letting herself in for a lengthy discourse on the latest events in Ellen’s life. And at her expense. She sat on the bed and prepared to listen.
Hailey barely credited herself with being moderately attractive, but had always felt that her sister, younger by two years, was stunning. Hailey’s hair was a glowing copper, but Ellen’s flamed. Hailey was tall and fashionably slender, but she thought of herself as skinny, the way she had been as a figure-conscious teenager. Ellen hadn’t been cursed with adolescent coltishness. She had gone from plump girlhood to voluptuous womanhood without any awkwardness in between.
Hailey was dependable. Ellen was hopelessly irresponsible. But she was beautiful and bubbly, and everyone adored her. If her flightiness often cost her a good job, she soon charmed someone else into hiring her, despite mediocre skills.
“It sounds like you’re happier at this job than at the last,” Hailey interjected when Ellen paused for breath after several talkative minutes.
“Oh yes! The people are much nicer. The women who worked in that other office were so mean to me. I think they were jealous. They told the boss bad things about me. I had to leave for my own peace of mind.”
Hailey was suspicious about how Ellen’s actual leaving had come about, but she didn’t contradict her sister’s version. Ellen should never be required to work. It didn’t suit her personality. She should find an indulgent rich man to pamper and spoil her for life.
“I’ve made some new friends, Hailey, and we’ve been going out every night and having a ball.”
“That’s wonderful, Ellen.”
“There’s a big party I’ve been invited to next week at the country club. It’s going to be fabulous! All the best people will be there.” Hailey flinched at Ellen’s snobbery. “Anyway, Hailey, I have one teeny-weeny problem.”
Hailey knew immediately what that teeny-weeny problem was. “I need a new dress, Hailey. And I haven’t gotten a full pay-check yet since I just started this job. Could you please send me enough to buy a dress for the party?”
“Ellen, I sent you some money last week,” Hailey said with a trace of asperity. “What happened to that?”
“A measly hundred dollars?”
“That measly hundred dollars was hard to come by,” Hailey said testily.
“I’m sorry, sis. I didn’t mean to sound as though I’m not grateful. Gosh, I am! But I used that to buy a suit. You didn’t expect me to start a new job without any decent clothes, did you?”
Hailey suspected that Ellen’s closet was fairly bulging with “decent clothes.” “I thought you said you needed that money for a deposit on a telephone.”
“Well, I did. But I managed to borrow that from one of the girls I work with.”
Hailey gnawed her bottom lip in vexation, but she put down her flash of temper and asked reasonably, “Do you think that’s a good idea, Ellen? To borrow money from someone you’ve just met?”
“Oh, she didn’t care. She’s becoming one of my very best friends.”
But for how long? Hailey wanted to ask. She rubbed her forehead, which had suddenly begun to pound. “Okay, Ellen, I’ll send you a little more, but this is the last time.” She recalled a pair of cold gray eyes glaring at her and remembered that she might not have a job herself.
“I understand,” Ellen said solemnly, then burst forth with accolades to all of Hailey’s virtues. “You’re the best sister in the whole world, Hailey. I’m so lucky to have you to take care of me.”
They said their good-byes, but it was a mechanical exercise for Hailey. Such scenes had happened too often in the past, and she admitted that they would probably happen again—in the near future. Breaking lifetime habits was difficult, if not impossible.
Ever since they were children, she had looked after Ellen. No one made a secret of the fact that Ellen was the “pretty one” and Hailey was the one with the brains. If Ellen was forgetful and irresponsible, she was forgiven because she looked so angelic. Their parents had never criticized her, nor rebuked her for letting her older sister do her thinking for her. Hailey had bailed Ellen out of numerous scrapes when they were children. Now, as adults, the pattern continued.
