ALL HE DESIRES (Voluptuous Woman Series) (26 page)

He chuckled. “Students getting on your nerves?”

She nodded. “But even more so are the administrators. They are shoving the do more with less policy down our throats. My classes have gotten larger and my work days longer. I don’t mind staying busy but all work and no play isn’t healthy.”

He nodded and glanced at her hand and noticed a ring wasn’t on her finger. “You’re still single?”

She met his gaze and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Yes, I never married. What about you?”

He leaned back against the railing wondering why she had never married, but then she would probably wonder the same thing about him. “I’m single, too” he said, thinking of just how single he was. “And I’ve never married either.”

For a long moment neither of them said anything and emotions he didn’t want to feel began swirling inside of him. He couldn’t help but dwell on the unspoken question that lingered between them. Why hadn’t either of them ever married? Did it have anything to do with how they had felt about each other back then? Fourteen years was a long time to be carrying a torch for someone but . . .

The cell phone attached to his belt rang, startling him. “Excuse me,” he said to Megan, before answering it. A few moments later he nodded in response to what the caller was saying. The Miller’s cat had taken ill. He inhaled a ragged breath as he disconnected the call and hooked the phone back on his belt. He had to leave on another appointment.

“So how long will you be in town?” he decided to ask, not wanting to leave just yet but knew that he had to go.

“Until Mom and Winston get back; probably for another three weeks. They planned to be gone a month.”

He tried not to notice how she had caught her lower lip between her teeth, something that used to turn him on back then and was doing so now. He gripped his vet bag tighter in his hand and quickly made a decision about something. “I’d like to take you to dinner while you’re here, Megan.”

He didn’t want to think that he could possibly be asking for trouble. A part of him needed to know if there were any lingering grievances as a result of that night thirteen years ago and if so they needed to come to terms with it. His heart began to pound and a part of him wanted to believe that the only reason he wanted to take her out was for old times’ sake; talk to her some more and find out what she’d been doing over the past thirteen years.

But he knew that a part of him needed to know why she’d never married.

Her decision may not have had anything to do with him, but he had to be sure that refusing to make love to her that night hadn’t caused any sort of emotional damage the way she had claimed it would in the bitter and angry letters she had sent to him.

She had written that he had hurt her and that she had believed the reason he had stopped things from going further between them that night was because he hadn’t really wanted her as much as she had wanted him. Boy, had she been wrong, but he had decided not to write her back and tell her otherwise. It had been best to let her believe that particular lie, forget him and move on with her life.

He studied her. They weren’t the same two people, but still in the back of his mind he knew there were things that needed to be settled between them; issues that had lasted too long that needed to be resolved.

He watched her, knowing she was considering his invitation. He inwardly sighed when she finally smiled and said, “Thanks. I think dinner would be nice, Tyler.”

He nodded. “How about Paddy’s Place tomorrow night?”

She smile as she remembered the popular restaurant. “Do they still serve the best seafood?”

“Yes, it’s still the best.”

“Then I definitely can’t refuse.”

He smiled. “Okay, then it’s a date and I’ll pick you up at seven. It will be nice to find out what you’ve been doing over the years,” he said, gripping his vet bag even tighter in his hand.

“Okay, and I want to catch up on things with you as well.” She glanced down and checked her watch. “I’d better go. I left something cooking in the oven.” For a moment she stared at him then said, “I meant what I said earlier, Tyler. It’s good seeing you again.”

“Same here, Megan, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.”

“So am I,” she said before turning to leave.

He watched her go and moments later when she had disappeared into the house he sighed deeply before walking toward his truck. She had agreed to go out with him, which meant she was no longer angry about that night. He was grateful for that. He looked forward to taking her out to dinner as nothing but old friends - talking, eating, dancing... kissing.

Kissing?

He stopped abruptly and inhaled even deeper. Megan James was back after all this time, and he was feeling the impact already.

***

Megan stood at the window and watched as Tyler drove away. Only when she could no longer see the vehicle did her heart slow down its erratic pounding.

The few moments she had stood in front of him, pretending not to be effected by him, had been hard. Each and every time his hazel-eyed gaze focused on her face, she had felt heat radiating low in her stomach. She had quickly accepted that Tyler had the same effect on her now that he had when she was in her teens.

She couldn’t help but think about her childhood which had been a long way from being normal. She had begun college at sixteen, gotten a bachelors degree from Harvard by the time she was nineteen and a doctorate there by her twenty-first birthday. She had a good-paying job at Berkeley and enjoyed living in California. But still, everything was not completely right in her world, which made her thoughts shift to Tyler again.

The Savoys, and there were a mass of them in Alexandria, had trademark hazel eyes and good looks. There were more guys than girls but all of them were known to be respectful and well-liked in the community. Their grandmother, Thelma Savoy, who was considered the backbone of the Savoy family, wouldn’t have it any other way, and had instilled into her grandchildren and great grandchildren strong moral values and a deep sense of doing what was right.

Something warm curled up inside of her at the possibility that her presence had affected Tyler as well. And she had meant what she’d said. It had been good seeing him again because doing so had made her realize something deep and essential. You never fully got over your first love. Her mother had been right. A part of her would always love Tyler. For a long time she had thought he had rejected her, and to add insult to injury, when he hadn’t answered her letters it became obvious that he had cut her out of his life. She had thought that way until she had discovered the truth.

She would never forget the long talk she’d finally had with her mother a few years ago, less than a week after breaking off her engagement to Jason, a guy she had met in California. Her mother had told her of the promise they had asked Tyler to make, a promise they had felt was needed after her grandfather had found a love letter she had written to Tyler, telling him of her nightly dreams about him and how more than anything she wanted those dreams to come true.

She had never sent that letter, had never entertained thoughts of doing so. She had merely written it to put a lot of her thoughts and feelings on paper, not realizing that it would one day end up in the wrong hands. Upon reading her innermost sensuous thoughts, her family had decided the best thing to do was to take drastic steps to make sure her dreams never became a reality. Instead of deliberately ending things between them, which they knew would be the wrong approach, they had preyed on Tyler’s good upbringing, his high sense of integrity, honor and doing what was right. In the end he had made her grandfather a promise; a promise he had kept even under the most arduous temptation.

During the two years of their courtship, she had appreciated all the time Tyler had spent with her. Until he had shown interest in her, her life had been downright isolated and lonely since most of the kids at school had thought because of her high IQ that she was just plain weird. But not Tyler. He had treated her special and not like some overeducated, superintelligent freak. He had convinced her that being smart was something she should be proud of and not ashamed of. And by choosing her as his girl he had shown others that he thought she was pretty as well as smart. Being the girlfriend of one of the most popular guys at school had made her feel extremely special. It didn’t take long for other boys to take notice, but then it was too late, because her heart fully belonged to Tyler. Even when he’d left for college, the boys stayed their distance since there were plenty of Savoy cousins around who were intent on protecting their cousin’s interest.

Megan sighed deeply as she walked away from the window. It had done her heart and mind good to realize after talking to her mother that the reason Tyler had turned away from her in the blazing heat of passion had nothing to do with him not desiring her but everything to do with keeping the promise he’d made to her grandfather. She wondered what he would think if he knew that she now knew the truth.

A shiver ran through her when she remembered her physical reaction to him earlier. She was amazed that she was still that attracted to him and wondered what he would think to find out that she was a twenty-nine year old virgin. Once she had gotten to college she’d discovered that because of her young age, a lot of the guys thought she was easy game. And although she would be the first to admit that her dating skills hadn’t been up to speed, she had been Tyler’s girl long enough to know what behavior she wanted from a guy. And it definitely wasn’t a man who couldn’t keep his hands off her for all the wrong reasons.

All that changed when she met Jason. He’d also been one of those individuals who’d accelerated through school most of his life. But his only problem was that with his analytical mind he had a tendency to analyze anything to death which would often drive her crazy. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she just couldn’t entertain the thought of sleeping with any man other than Tyler. He had been the man whom she thought she would be with for the rest of her life, and their love was one she’d thought would last forever.

Her forever had come crashing down with her on that one prom night. Even now she couldn’t forget that night, especially all the sensuous foreplay that should have resulted in them making love. He had touched her everywhere and even now her breasts still ached from the memory of his mouth on her. Nor could she forget the sight of a naked Tyler, broad-shouldered, solidly built, masculine and powerful. He had been mere inches of going inside of her body, joining their bodies as one, when he’d pull back, denying them what they both had wanted.

Over the years thoughts of him had still crept into her dreams, which was why she’d had no other choice but to break off her engagement with Jason. There was no way she could marry one man while still having deep, torrid, titillating thoughts of another; thoughts that hadn’t completly gone away.

Megan sighed. Seeing Tyler again had resurfaced heated desires and inflamed emotions but they were no longer the desires and emotions of a young girl but a full-fledged woman. As crazy as it seemed, she knew what she needed from Tyler to be set free and it went a lot deeper than just resolving the past. In her heart and mind she felt that he owed her a “prom night” – one that would end the way theirs had meant to end, with no promises standing in the way. He was to have been her first lover and now she wanted him to still be that.

She still wanted Tyler as her first lover.

There was no way she could move on with her life, put the past behind her, and get Tyler out of her system until they had the night they should have had. It didn’t take long after being in Tyler’s presence to know he was still an honorable man, someone who still believed in doing what was right. He was raised to treat a woman like a lady. And with that thought in mind she knew what she had to do. He had denied her what she’d wanted once, but she was determined that things would be different this time around. They were now adults and could do whatever they wanted without anyone’s interference. There were no promises to stand in the way of them having the kind of night together that they were meant to have.

And Megan knew that a night with Tyler was what she wanted more than anything.

Tyler tucked his hands into the back pockets of his jeans after ringing the door bell. He sighed deeply. More than once since yesterday he had questioned the sanity of his decision to take Megan out, and no matter how many times he asked the question why, the answer would come back reluctantly and honestly. There were issues they needed to finally resolve.

Thirteen years was a long time for misunderstandings. There was a time he could read Megan like a book. He had known she had wanted more from their relationship back then. But she hadn’t known of the promise he had made to her grandfather; a man he had highly respected.

Tyler had been aware each and every single time Megan had desired him. It had been there in her eyes, a hunger that was more than a teenage girl should have to deal with. He would never forget the first time she had caught him off guard when they had kissed good night. He had intended for it to be only a chaste kiss on the lips, but she had pulled his head down to hers and had taken over the kiss, inserting her tongue into his mouth, deepening the contact and giving him a glimpse of how things could be if he were to loosen up a little, let go of the reins. Her action had transformed an innocent kiss into a very heated one, and when she’d finally let go of his mouth, she had smiled as if pleased with the response she had gotten out of him.