markets. And the fact that his father owned one of the larger mills in the area didn’t hurt his standing, either.
“Yes, Seth, I suppose I might make a real killing, unless my crop fails and I have to go somewhere and buy someone else’s whole damned harvest just to fulfill my contract to you.”
Seth Hastings looked over his steepled fingertips to the man sitting on the other side of his desk. “Now, Tyler, you know that’s not going to happen. You’re one of the best farmers in the state. You haven’t had a failed crop since you started wearing pants with zippers.”
“I’ve come too damned close too many times to take anything for granted and you know it,” Tyler argued. And then he leaned back in his chair and cocked one long leg across his knee. “But, I’m going to take a chance. I’ve got a hunch about the government pay base this year and it doesn’t feel good. If we don’t get someone in office up in Washington that understands farmers and makes some changes in the agriculture program, we’re all going to be out on our ears and that’s a fact.”
“All right.” Seth grinned and clapped his hands. “This calls for a celebration! And I know just the place. Ever been to The Old South?”
Tyler glanced down at his watch, calculating the time he knew that they’d spend at some club against the time he had to drive home to his farm outside of Tulip, and decided that he deserved a break.
“No, but I have a feeling I’m about to be taken there.”
“Like Sherman took Atlanta,” Seth said.
Tyler grinned. “You better not say that too loud around here.”
Seth laughed. “Come on reb, let’s go have us a party.”
“Lead on, Yankee,” Tyler retorted. “I’m due some R and R.”
Amelia glowed beneath the subdued lighting like a fire-cracker on the Fourth of July. Her tall, shapely body was neatly encased in shiny red satin and spandex. Lorna, the lifeguard at Tulip’s public swimming pool had a suit just like it, only it didn’t sport a black net bustle that bounced back and forth as she walked and her legs weren’t nearly as long or encased in black fishnet hose like “Amber’s”.
Trying to ignore the slick touch of a man’s hands on the back of her thigh as she scooted between the tables of customers, she looked down and glared. “I’ll be right with you, sir.”
He leered back. “I’ll be waiting.”
Stifling the urge to dump her tray of drinks in his lap, she continued to the next table.
Seth looked up and then whistled softly as he and Tyler were being seated in a darkened corner of the club. “Ooowee.”
Tyler followed his friend’s gaze and started to laugh when he saw the woman in red…her long, long legs…and that damned bobbing bustle…and forgot to take his next breath. He watched her neatly take command of an unruly situation, take a patron’s order and dodge grasping hands without misplacing that smile on her face.
To his dismay, the room began to sway, and he grabbed hold of the table to settle his world. It would be hell if he fell on his face before he ever learned her name. He went from interest to lust so quickly he caught himself shifting uncomfortably in his seat. He hadn’t been this hard this fast since his sixteenth birthday when Kissy Beth Syler had skinny-dipped in front of him just for kicks. And then he grinned to himself, remembering that she wasn’t the only one who’d gotten her kicks that day. He’d had a soft spot for farm ponds ever since. It was a memorable way to celebrate one’s arrival into manhood.
“That’s one fine-looking lady,” Seth murmured.
Tyler’s eyes narrowed. Fine didn’t begin to describe his opinion.
And then Seth’s grin widened as he nudged Tyler’s leg beneath the table with the toe of his shoe. “Hey great, she’s coming this way. It looks like we lucked out tonight, my friend. We’re sitting at one of her tables.”
“What’ll you gentlemen have?”
Amelia stood with pen poised above paper, staring at a point just to the left of the men’s shoulders. She never actually looked them in the eye. It was her way of retaining what she considered anonymity. But she need not have bothered. She was as far removed from Amelia Beauchamp’s persona as diamonds were from coal.
The man with his back to the wall mumbled something totally unintelligible, forcing Amelia to look up. Her heart thumped wildly as sweat broke out on the back of her neck.
Their gazes locked. Tyler looked up into eyes so green they looked wet and then he blinked. No, maybe they were blue. He could swear he saw sky. He watched her turn pale beneath the layer of makeup she was wearing. A glimpse of pearly white teeth slipped down across her lower lip and Tyler frowned as he watched the pressure increasing. If she wanted her lip bit, he’d be glad to oblige.
Amelia groaned. Oh my God. I knew that this might happen! Now what in the world am I going to do? If he goes back to Tulip and tells, I’m ruined! Why him? And why now?
Here he was, the man of her dreams sitting less than a foot away, and she had to fight the urge to run. At this point, the band swung into a loud jazzy number that made hearing nearly impossible. She leaned forward.
“Excuse me, sir, but I didn’t hear your order. What did you say you wanted?”
As she leaned, both men got a better than average look at a tightly encased bust threatening to spill from strapless red spandex.
The room took another tilt as Tyler realized he had the strangest urge to lay this woman down beneath their table and peel that red stuff off of her a little bit at a… To his dismay, he verbalized his thoughts.
“Want? I want you!” Oh, good God. What did I say? “Uh…I mean, I want you to excuse me. Seth, you order. I’ve got to…I need to…where’s the…?”
Amelia breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t recognize her. “First door on your left down the hall,” she said, and then waited to get their order as Tyler strode away from the table.
Tyler leaned over the sink, splashing his face with cool water, although it wasn’t the part of his anatomy that needed cooling off. He stared blankly at the water droplets running down his face and absently blotted them with a handful of paper towels.
“What in hell just happened to me?”
But his reflection didn’t answer. From the looks of it, his reflection was just as scared as he was. This didn’t look good, but that woman surely did. He tossed the towels into the trash and headed out the door.
Seth shoved a tall glass of cola in front of Tyler. “Are you all right? I didn’t think you needed anything alcoholic. You looked like you were getting sick.”
He shrugged, unwilling to admit how she’d rattled him. “I’m okay. I don’t know what…”
Something lacy and black caught the corner of his eye. Perfume wafted across his nostrils. Even in this din, even through the smoke, he smelled her coming.
Amelia walked up behind him and set a small dish of peanuts on the table to go with their drinks.
When
