With that, she swept out the door, her skirt a straight line around her legs, her hair swishing back and forth like a curtain. The scent of her lingered like the aftermath of sex.
Tyler leaned his shoulder against the bookshelf and shook his head. A sudden laugh broke from his chest. He'd deserved that. And now he liked her even more.
"Well played, Miss Darling," he murmured, his gaze on the empty space she'd left behind. "But I'm not finished with you yet."
Chapter
FIVE
Oh my God.
She was so turned on. To the point that she was squeezing her thighs together underneath her desk and hoping no one noticed how flushed she still was.
She'd known Tyler could bring the sexy, but she certainly hadn't expected to experience his brand of seduction firsthand. Moreover, she really hadn't expected her body to throb and burn to the point that she'd been ready to come on his strong thigh.
She let out her breath slowly. She'd had to muster every ounce of willpower she possessed to push him away and gather her composure with lightning-quick speed. He could obviously rev her engine, but that didn't mean she would let herself be manipulated.
Then again, she could have pushed him away much sooner. Like, when he first started flirting with her. But she'd been so curious, so unbearably eager to find out just how far he would go and if he'd actually kiss her. She could imagine Miles kissing her politely, but Tyler? She had no idea. She'd never been kissed by a man like him before.
Disappointment twinged through her. Although she hadn't had any intention of letting him play her, she had been intensely hoping he would kiss her. A little kiss. Just the warm press of his lips against hers.
Then maybe she would have opened her mouth to let him in, and the kiss might have gotten hot and wet, even a bit messy. Maybe he would have thrust his hands into her hair, tilted her head back, devoured her mouth with his while she writhed shamelessly against his thigh and her arousal burned hotter and hotter …
Kate groaned inwardly. She'd never been uncomfortable in her body, but it had always been just sort of … there. Nothing to write home about. Not a magnet for attraction. She liked touching herself, and her sexual experiences had been okay, but she'd never reveled in her body or loved being inside her own skin.
Her mind, on the other hand-that was the source of her confidence and strength. So much so that she didn't often give her body much thought, aside from taking care of it with healthy food, daily walks, and scrupulous hygiene.
But what would it have felt like to surrender to lust, to have let Tyler pull her skirt up and press his hand between her legs …
With a frustrated sigh, she forced her mind back to the reality of the situation.
Help him with the library, indeed. He meant "you do the work so I don't have to."
Her arousal dampened at the reminder that he hadn't actually wanted her as much as her abilities. Not that she minded being wanted for her skills-after all, they were the reason she was so good at her job-but with all of Tyler's smooth talk about her "killer body" and legs, it would have been a little bit nice if he'd also been attracted to her physically.
Maybe she was shallow to be wanted for her body rather than her mind or personality. But her past relationships hadn't exactly been zinging with sexual chemistry, so Kate did want to know what a hot, purely physical encounter would feel like. Especially if it involved a man like Tyler with his granite arms and intoxicating deep voice, and-
Stop it.
She couldn't let Tyler and his sexiness distract her from her goal of finally asking newly single Miles out on a date. In fact, she needed to come up with a plan so her next attempt wasn't such a disaster.
Maybe if she learned more about Miles's ex-girlfriend, she could get some ideas about what he was looking for. She took her phone out of the holster and typed Melanie McGuffin into the search engine.
The other woman's social media sites popped up, and by all accounts, Melanie was freaking perfect. Short blond hair, big-toothed smile, slender, toned body. A UCLA graduate, she owned an exclusive clothing boutique in downtown Indigo Bay and hung out with shiny, lovely people who posted pictures of themselves with arms linked and ear-to-ear smiles. How am I supposed to compete with that?
Kate sighed. Miles was in a few of the photos, though he didn't look as happy as the rest of the crowd. In a couple, he stood a distance apart, as if he weren't quite comfortable with their evident joviality.
Maybe that was the reason they'd broken up. Maybe Melanie's friends were too fun-loving for Miles. He was serious and thoughtful, after all. He would have neither the time nor the patience for loud groups of people who apparently couldn't stop laughing. Miles was far more suited to quiet evenings at the theater or perhaps discussing Thomas Hardy at a book club.