Seduction by Design by Sandra Brown

believe. He had left because he already had her malleable—like clay in his hands—ready to do his bidding, grant his favors.
    To hell with your favors, Mr. Scott.
    Since she had not paid attention to where she was going, her feet came to an abrupt standstill when she looked up and saw the Sidewinder. It was here, almost on this exact spot, that she had first met those gray eyes. They could compel her to behave in so uncharacteristic a way that she didn’t even know herself anymore.
    She imagined him the way she had first seen him, and she knew in that instant that the emotion rioting inside her was only half anger. The rest was bitter despair. She had grown to like him. Was dangerously close, she feared, to loving him.
Why, Tyler?
she asked the vision in her mind’s eye.
Why couldn’t you like me for myself? Why is it you only wanted to use me?
    Defeat and dejection rode heavily on her shoulders as she turned and walked back to her office. She didn’t see that the trees were becoming tinted with the russets and golds of fall. She didn’t realize how the autumn colors around her emphasized her own coloring.
    Women turned envious eyes on her tall slender figure, her burnished hair, her green eyes, made luminous now by unshed tears. But Hailey didn’t see their covert glances. Nor did she see how men turned to appreciate her proud carriage, the natural, unaffected sway of her hips, her well-shaped legs, her high breasts. She was blind to their approving looks and always had been. In her mirror she still saw herself as she had been in her youth—awkward, plain, undesirable.
    She wasn’t the only victim of Tyler’s desertion. Faith called her that afternoon. “Daddy said I could call you if I had a problem, but he told me not to bother you too much. Am I bothering you?”
    The loneliness in the soft voice tugged at Hailey’s conscience. She couldn’t take out her anger with the father on the child. “Of course not.
Do
you have a problem?”
    “Well, sort of,” Faith hedged, and Hailey got the distinct impression that she was stalling, searching for an excuse to have called. “Do you think I should perm my hair? You know, kinda like Stevie Nicks.”
    Hailey bit her lip to keep from laughing. “I think we should talk it over during dinner.”
    “You mean it, Hailey? Gee, that would be terrific.” The whining had disappeared and exuberance had taken its place.
    “Why don’t we drive over to Pigeon Forge and eat there?”
    “Okay! What should we wear?” Faith asked with a grown-up inflection, and Hailey wondered if she were imitating her late mother.
    “We’ll go sloppy in jeans and T-shirts. Let’s go to a place where they have a huge salad bar and then well have two desserts.”
    Faith was giggling. “We’ll both get fat and then when Daddy comes back, he won’t know either of us.”
    Hailey thought that Tyler certainly wouldn’t know her. She wouldn’t be cooperative and eager the way she’d been the night before, telling him with actions, if not with words, how much she craved his touch, his kiss. “I’ll pick you up at seven. I’m taking off early tonight.” If she were going to be rebellious, she was going all the way. “Tell the manager—”
    “Harry.”
    “Tell Harry I’ll have you back by ten.”
    “Okay, see ya.” Just before she hung up, Faith added, “Daddy said you’d think up neat things for us to do.”
    So, Hailey thought as she sat in her office tight-lipped and fuming, he had expected her to follow his wishes. He had foreseen no problems with her granting him this favor.
    She had calmed down by the time she picked up Faith at the hotel. They had a fun evening, competing in a game of miniature golf after enjoying a huge country dinner. They spent each evening after that together. Hailey enjoyed the girl, who was beginning to talk about some of the heartaches she had suffered. Hailey listened and knew instinctively that no one had given the child such undivided attention