Cover to Covers (9 page)

“No, it would have changed everything between us.”
He took a needed swig of soda water.

“I would have just turned into a number then, Ty. And I didn’t want to end up being just another notch
on your bedpost.”

He
plopped his glass on the table. “Jesus, you would never have been that.”

Raising her
wine to her lips, she conceded, “I guess we’ll never know.”

She sat across from him, heartily chugging her
drink, when he realized her need for alcohol was just as great as his.

“
Moe, haven’t you ever wondered what we would have been like together?”

Monique almost choked on her
drink. She patted her hand against her chest and banged her glass down on the table. “No!”

“Liar.” He
signaled their waitress, who was standing at the oak bar across the room.

“
Ty, what are you doing?”

“
I’m getting you some more wine.”

“I don’t need it, really.”
She held up her half-empty glass.

T
he waitress looked over at him and he pointed down to Monique’s drink. When the dark-haired woman nodded her head with understanding, he glanced back at Monique. She was desperately clutching her wine with both hands.

He contemplated her apprehensive eyes. “Why are you looking so terrified all of a sudden? Are you afraid of me?”

“No, not of you.” She avoided his gaze. “I’m afraid of what you are thinking.”

“
And what am I thinking?”

“I’m not going to sleep with you, if that’s what this dinner is about.”
Monique guzzled more wine.

A
ribbon of desire snaked its way through Tyler’s body. “This is just dinner between two old friends. I have no expectations.”

She
whacked the empty glass down on the table. “Now who’s lying?”

He
raised his drink to his lips, but said nothing. He could feel it in his bones when a woman wanted him, and suddenly his insides were humming with excitement. But as he ran through a flurry of detailed sexual images of Monique, Tyler questioned if the actual act would live up to all of his expectations. Never before had he waited so long for a woman, and instead of adding to his desire, the idea of finally attaining what he had hoped for worried him. Would the reality of their sleeping together live up to the twenty plus years they had spent dreaming of the moment? Tyler had a sneaking suspicion that he was about to find out.

Chapter 6

It was well after eleven when Tyler helped a tipsy Monique out of the back of the black Town
Car and into the hotel lobby.

“You shouldn’t have let me drink so much,” she
admonished.

He put his arm about her shoulders. “You were the one who kept drinking the wine.”

“Only because you kept ordering it for me. Honestly, Ty, I’m not one of your bimbos.”

“I don’t go out with bimbos, Moe. Many of the women I end up with are smart, classy, polished
, and—”

“Easy
,” she piped in.

He laughed as the teak and gold doors of the main elevators loomed before them. “After forty a woman is not easy, she’s interested. You’re only easy in high school.”

“Forty?” She chuckled against him. “I thought you liked them a lot younger than that.”

Wh
ile pressing the elevator call button, he slipped his hand about her waist to help hold her up. “I gave up dating anyone under forty a few years back. The conversations were too painful. The younger one’s just kept reminding me how old I was getting.”

“You’ll never be old. You’re still that twenty-nine-year-old guy who was way too good-looking for me.”

“Too good-looking? You’re joking?”

“I always thought you were never interested in me because I wasn’t a model, or cheerleader, or any
one of those ultra-gorgeous girls.”

“Why on earth did you think that?” He
dipped his head to her ear and whispered, “You were the most beautiful woman I ever knew. Still are.”

She
let go a loud disapproving snort. “Yeah, right.”

He removed his arm from about her waist and cupped her face in his hands. “I mean it, Moe. To me, you are a very beautiful woman.”

“Well, there you are,” a deep voice called.

When Tyler turned,
a casually dressed Chris Donovan emerged from an open elevator. Tyler let go of Monique and stood back from her. The sudden loss of his support made her wobble slightly on her feet. 

Chris rushed to Monique’s side.
“Where have you been?”

Tyler bristled as Chris place
d his arm about Monique’s waist to steady her.

“We just came from dinner.” Monique straightened up and pushed Chris away.

“How many chardonnays did you have with dinner?” Chris put his arm back about her waist and ushered her toward the waiting elevator.

Monique pushed him away once more. “I’m fine.” She
swayed slightly on her feet.

“You’re drunk,” he
chided.

Tyler edged to her side. “I was going to see her back to her room.”

Chris Donovan’s angry blue eyes burned into Tyler. “I’ll see her to her room. I think you’ve done enough for one evening.”

Monique
inched toward the elevator. “Chris, you don’t need to take me up to my room. I’m fine.”

“Monique, you’re not fine.” He came closer to her. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

“No, Chris. No coffee.” She shuffled into the elevator. “I’m just going to go to my room and sleep it off.”

Chris was about to walk into the elevator
with Monique when Tyler stepped in front of him, blocking his path. “She said she’ll be fine,” Tyler growled.

“Yeah,” Monique chimed in from the elevator car. 

Chris took a step back, nodding his head. When Tyler turned around, he was surprised to find Monique holding the elevator doors open for him.

“Aren’t you coming?”
she implored.

Tyler
grinned and entered the car.

As Monique pressed the button for the eighth floor, Tyler could not help but gloat
when Chris’s lips tightly pursed together in an angry scowl.

After the elevator doors had closed, Monique let out a heavy sigh.
“Christ, he is getting impossible.”

“What is it with that guy? Why is he so possessive of you?”
Tyler demanded.

She shrugged and
rested against the side of the car. “I’m his biggest client and he’s terrified of losing me to some other publisher that will cut him out as my manager.”

“Are you
thinking of leaving your publisher?”

She waved
off his question. “Hell no. Donovan Books has been good to me.”

“
Donovan Books? It’s his publishing house?”

“His family’s business
,” she acknowledged. “He has a brother, Hunter, who manages the publishing company while he runs a separate promotions company for the authors.”

“No wonder he’s so worried about losing you.” Tyler rested his hand on his hip. “I thought maybe he was in love with you.”

“He isn’t in love with me…or at least I don’t think he is.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t noticed how he acts toward you, Moe
.”

“I know any man that shows the least bit of interest in me, Chris runs off. Until you came along, I didn’t care who he ran off, because I never wanted
—” She abruptly stepped over to the doors.

He came alongside her. “You never wanted what?”

“Forget it.” She kept her eyes on the doors as the elevator came to a stop on the eighth floor.

He held on to her arm. “
What is it, Moe?”

When the
doors opened, she shirked off his hand and bolted from the car.

“Wait,” he
pleaded, following her down the hallway.

Monique was almost sprinting when he caught up to her. Grabbing her arm, he spun her around to face him.

“Tell me what you were going to say.”

She struggled against his grip. “No.”

Wriggling free of him, Monique scampered the last few yards to her room. Tyler followed dutifully behind her, determined to make her talk. When she reached her door, she had already removed the white key-card from her purse and was swiping it through the lock. But the gods of fortune were smiling down on Tyler, because the lock failed to register the key after her swipe and the red light on the lock blinked, denying her access.

Tyler came up behind her as she
hurriedly swiped the card through again, only to be denied once more. He took the white card from her hand.

“Let me
try.” He ran the card through the lock, and the light switched to green.

Monique stood beside him
as he opened her door. “You were right,” she whispered.

“Right about what?”

Her gray eyes were filled with the same fear he had seen back at the restaurant. “When you asked me if I ever wondered what we would be like together. I did lie to you. I used to think about it all the time.”

“Are you thinking about it now?”

She slowly nodded.

He pushed the door all the way open. “Ask me to stay.”

“What if you’re disappointed, or what if I don’t live up to—?”

He placed his finger over her lips. “Moe, you could never disappoint me. If nothing happened between us tonight, I still wouldn’t be disappointed.”

She took in a deep breath, clasped his hand, and led him into her room. When they came to the edge of the bedroom, Monique let go of his hand, and then set her black purse on the wooden desk to the side. For several seconds, she just stood there with her back to him.

P
lacing his hands on her shoulders, Tyler turned her around. The panic swarming in her eyes made him smile.

“It’s not like you haven’t done this before, Moe.”  

“I just haven’t done it with you.” She rested her hands on his wide chest. “With you, I still feel like I’m that twenty-year old virgin.”

His mouth
was poised inches from hers. “Don’t think of how we used to be. Just think of how much I want you.” Tyler gently kissed her sumptuous pink lips.

At first, he was almost afraid to kiss her any harder, she felt so fragile next to him. He gingerly placed his arms about her slender figure and eased her closer
. It was then that she kissed him back…tentatively, pressing her mouth ever so slightly against his. When his arms tightened about her, she parted her lips and tempted him with her tongue. Tyler quickly became undone; the softness of her velvety skin, the heat from her body, and the curve of her breasts against his chest were intoxicating. He deepened his kiss, hungry for more. Soon, his hands were running up and down her back, holding her firm, round behind in his hands, and lifting her from the floor. Tyler carried her to the bed, and when he set her down on the neatly turned down gold bedspread—complete with that complimentary chocolate on the pillow—Monique peeled the suit jacket from his shoulders.

“I don’t remember it feeling like this
.” She nipped at his earlobe.

No longer intimidated, Tyler was pulling at her top, desperate to get to her skin. “It’s better.” He kissed her again.

Her hands went to his pale blue shirt, and after fumbling with the first few buttons, she ripped the shirt from his chest, popping buttons in the process.

Tyler reciprocated by tugging at her top, almost
tearing the collar as he fought to pull it over her head. He nimbly unclasped her bra, and then his mouth covered her right nipple. He kissed her tender pink flesh, and when his teeth sank into her, she trembled in his arms. The sensation drove him over the edge. He was grabbing at the zipper of her jeans, yanking the fabric free of her hips while her nails scratched down the length of his back.

He bit
the nape of her neck, wanting to get back at her. When her hands went to the fly of his slacks, his anticipation reached the breaking point. Eager to have her supple body beneath him, he hastily pushed her back on the bed. Before he climbed on top of her, he shoved his trousers and briefs down around his ankles, and then kicked them away along with his shoes.

Finally naked with her, he
gradually lowered the last impediment of clothing from around her hips. After he wrestled her beige silk underwear free of her ankles, he let his lips travel slowly up her creamy white thighs while his hand slipped between her knees, urging her legs apart. He pulled her hips closer to him and kissed her inner thigh, letting his mouth work its way to the valley between her legs. When he spread her folds, ready to taste her moist flesh, Monique moaned.

He teased her with his tongue, feeling her undulate against him as her pleasure rose and ebbed. When she arched against the bed and cried out, Tyler
’s lips begin their slow ascent over her flat stomach to her left breast. He clamped his mouth over her nipple, relishing the taste of her.