disaster, Amelia leaned down once more, shouting to be heard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Tyler stared, once again lost in those blue-green eyes and that cloud of chestnut curls drifting around her face. If she bit her lip again he was in serious trouble.
“That’s all right, miss…?” Seth Hastings waited with a smile on his face, expecting her to fill in the blanks with her name. She obliged.
“My name is Amber,” she answered. “Will there be anything else?”
Her name is Amber! Tyler grabbed her arm. “Yes.”
She waited, and then waited some more as his fingers tightened around her wrist. She began to panic again. What if he was beginning to…? And then he shouted in her ear.
“Bring me some nuts.”
Seth’s grin widened perceptibly, which did not help Tyler’s unraveling composure.
Amelia looked at him as if he’d grown horns and carefully pushed the dish toward him that she’d just placed on the table.
He looked down at the salty, brown nuts and reluctantly let go of her wrist.
“Oh…uh, thanks.”
Seth rolled his eyes. This was getting better by the minute.
“Will there be anything else?” Amelia asked. She was almost afraid to wait for the answer.
“If there is, we’ll yell,” Seth said. “And thanks…Amber. You’re a doll.”
Tyler frowned. He didn’t think he liked the fact that Seth just paid the woman a compliment. He grabbed his cola and downed it in one gulp, watching that bobbing bustle over the rim of his glass as Amber walked away.
Seth grinned. “Old girlfriend?”
“I wish,” Tyler muttered, and then grinned back at his friend’s owlish leer. “Just shut the hell up, Seth. I haven’t signed that contract yet. If you keep this up, I still may not.”
Seth pursed his lips into a comical expression of propriety and calmly lifted the bowl of nuts from the table.
“Here you go, Tyler, have a peanut.”
Two
It was almost closing time, and without doubt, the evening had been the longest of Amelia’s life. The relief of knowing that Tyler Savage hadn’t recognized her had left her weak and shaken. It was her first close call since she’d started living a double life.
She fidgeted with the top of her suit as she gathered up her gear. With one last tug at its too-snug fit, she emptied her tips onto the bar and began to count. At least one good thing was coming out of this deceit. Her car fund was growing. At the other end of the bar, Raelene was performing a similar routine while employees began to clean up.
And then a voice in Amelia’s ear made her jump. Her suit slipped a notch as she whirled around. Openmouthed, she clutched her suit with one hand and a wad of bills with the other as Tyler Savage leaned forward and poked a dollar bill lightly into the crevasse between her breasts.
“You dropped this,” he explained, with an obliging grin.
Amelia gasped, and yanked it out with a flourish. “Thank you,” she muttered, and spun around, anxious that he not see her so closely, face-to-face.
“Amber…?”
Her heart skipped a beat as his deep, sexy drawl lingered in her ears.
“What?” she muttered, and began stuffing money into her bag. She had to get away from him and she had to do it now. This situation was making her nervous.
“Would you go out with me sometime? Maybe to dinner…a movie…or dancing, wherever you wanted. You name it.”
He waited anxiously for her answer, remembering the hour he’d spent after Seth had gone home just watching her wait tables. For some strange reason, she didn’t seem as if she was a stranger, although he knew for a fact that he’d never seen her before tonight.
While he waited for an answer, Amelia went into a panic.
Oh my Lord! He’s just asked me out on a date! What do I do? All these years he’s ignored my existence and now he decides to notice me? Now when I can’t do a darned thing about it? It’s not fair! And then it dawned on her that he hadn’t really asked her out, he’d asked Amber. It was a frustrating and sobering thought.
Of course, had Amelia been honest with herself, she would have admitted that her own personal appearance had nothing to do with Amber’s. As Amelia she’d done nothing to attract his, or any other man’s attention. It wasn’t entirely Tyler Savage’s fault that he didn’t know Amelia Beauchamp existed. But as Amber, she didn’t have to do anything to attract attention. Her pretty face and that shiny red suit were enough enticement for any man with the inclination.
“We don’t know each other,” she muttered, as she stuffed the last of her tips away. “I don’t think that a date would be proper.”
Tyler couldn’t believe what he’d heard. He’d expected any number of answers, but a concern about propriety had not been one of them. In his experience, propriety and barmaids had little in common.
He leaned forward, just shy of touching her again. “We’d get to know each other a whole lot better if you’d agree to go out with me.”
Amelia groaned. His voice was as compelling as the man himself. She closed her eyes and then shuddered. There was no way on God’s earth that she could go out with him. He might suspect, and if he did, she was ruined. With a dejected sigh, she looked up.
“Thanks all the same,” she said softly, “but I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”
Tyler died in her eyes and was resurrected by the smile on her lips. Her mouth was moving. He knew it because he could feel her breath against his face, but focusing on her words was impossible. And then she started to walk away.
“Does this mean no?”
Another soft smile slid into place in spite of her intention to remain aloof. “It means just what I said, mister. It’s not a good idea.” In fact, you have no idea how dangerous it would be.
“My name is Tyler…Tyler Savage. And I’m real good at changing people’s minds.”
At that, he reached out and gently tucked a stray curl back in place that had been teasing at the corner of her eye.
Amelia held her breath as his finger stroked against her temple. She was afraid he wouldn’t stop with a touch and afraid that she wouldn’t have the guts to say no again.
Tyler ached to hold her. The lost, almost vulnerable look that kept appearing and disappearing on her face was nearly his undoing. As aloof as she seemed, he sensed insecurity and fear were the true reasons for her behavior.
“Okay, you win…this time. But I’ll be back, and I’ll need a better excuse than the one you used tonight. Okay?”
