On the TV the countdown began.
He climbed back over her, gently pushing her thighs apart to make room for his perfect hips. She looked up into his face, the light from the TV illuminating his perfect brown skin as his thick length nudged against her clit. She closed her eyes against the sensation for just a moment before gazing back at him again.
“Happy New Year, Zach,” she whispered.
“Happy New Year, Buck.”
His head dipped down and he pressed his lips to hers. Evie sighed against his mouth, opening up to him so their tongues could meet. She slid her arms around his waist and welcomed him inside.
Chapter 20
If Zach wasn’t careful, he was going to pass out from pleasure. He held himself above Evie’s amazing body, focusing on the way her lips parted as he moved inside of her. Her wet heat surrounding him was better than Zach had imagined. The slick grip was so tight and inviting, he knew he could easily stay with her like this until the sun came up.
He almost laughed, thinking about how damn foolish he’d been. All those late nights—hell, even some afternoons and early mornings—when he’d thought about what it would be like to be with Evie Buchanan. All of those times he wondered what would happen if he’d just said fuck it to the warnings from Nana Buck, and told Evie how he felt. The hours he’d lost thinking about how much he’d screwed up not asking her to be his girl. But she was here now, and before the night was over he’d finally tell her exactly how he felt. No bullshit, no put-on charm. She deserved all of him, including the words he’d been too young and cowardly to say. No more.
He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to the side of her neck. Her head lolled to the side as she let out a soft moan, urging him on. He kissed the same spot again, slowing the motion of his hips. She didn’t want to wait, Zach didn’t want to rush. He wanted to make love to Evie, slowly. He wanted it to last for the both of them.
He moved carefully, gently withdrawing from the slick warmth that was practically begging him to keep on with his slow and deep back-and-forth. Evie groaned, gripping his back tightly with her fingertips. Her perfect pussy did the same, squeezing around him, pleading him not to let go.
“Hold on,” he whispered. He moved back up her body and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “I got you. Okay? This isn’t over.”
She stared back at him through her pink-framed glasses, scanning his eyes before finally giving him a shy nod. Zach took that as the sign he needed to continue a proper exploration of her body. He set aside his Stetson on the bedpost, then went back to kissing his way down her chest. She was still wearing her pajama top. He pulled the thin strap to the side, exposing her hard nipple. Zach drew it into his mouth before gently swirling his tongue over the tip.
He could feel Evie shiver as her fingers moved along the back of his head. He sucked the puckered brown tip again, lightly scraping it with his teeth before he gave her other breast the same attention. His cock was aching, throbbing against her thigh. He wanted to be inside her again, but this was just as good, watching her trembling on the bed beneath him. Zach rolled to the side, but kept close with his body draped over her thigh and his mouth still on her skin.
He played with her breasts for a long time, using his fingers to circle her clit in slow, drawn-out strokes. He teased her entrance, watching the way her neck strained.
Her hand went to his wrist. Zach froze and looked up at her beautiful face.
“Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Please don’t stop.” He obeyed, picking up the rhythm of his fingers right where he left off. “That—yeah,” Evie moaned.
“Right here?” His fingers were coated now, soaked with her juices as he stroked either side of the tightening bud.
“Yes, please. Just like that.”
He kept up with the strokes, watching her face, feeling her grip on his hand grow tighter and tighter. A second later she started coming, her hips rising off the bed. He slowed his strokes, easing her down. Her doctor had cleared her for sex, but Zach still didn’t want to push her too hard.
“How we doing?”
“Good. You—you didn’t—”
“Not yet.” He leaned up and kissed her on the mouth. “Just wanted to check in with you. How’s your head?”
“Fine. I feel good.” Zach chuckled at the slow smile that eased across her lips. “But I want you to come, too. I need to tell my diary how I finally got Zach Pleasant naked and brought him to his knees.”
Zach let out a shout of laughter, then buried his face against Evie’s neck. He could feel her body shake as she laughed along with him. His breathing slowed when he felt her lips on the side of his face a moment later. He moved just enough so their lips could meet. His arm looped her waist, and in a careful maneuver, he shifted onto his back, pulling Evie on top of him.
Zach reached down and aligned his still painfully hard dick with her opening. Evie sank down on him like she was meant to be there, right where she belonged. Zach didn’t hold back. He let out a guttural moan when he felt every inch of himself pressed deep inside her. Evie sat up for just a moment, just to pull her tank top over her head, and then she was kissing him again. Zach wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close so her breasts pressed against his chest as he started working his hips against her. Fuck, he could do this for days.
Before long though, he felt that telltale tingle in his spine. It shot down to his balls and just before he filled the condom, Evie arched against him, their cries echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
* * *
Evie couldn’t stop touching Zach. She lay on her stomach at an odd angle across his rumpled sheets, staring at his amazing body, splayed out on his muscled back. His eyes were closed, but he was still awake, breathing deeply. Her fingers traced over his dark brown nipple. Her hand moved down his chest, trailing over the dark hair that led down to his softening erection.
Blaire had mentioned Evie’s previous boyfriends and sexual partners, but something told her none of her previous experiences came close to the feeling of having a certain cowboy between her thighs. Yes, her memory failed her, but she knew no one in her past could compare to Zach. And it wasn’t just his gentle skill when it came to pleasuring her, it was the way she was falling for him more and more every minute they were together. The words in her diary made more and more sense. It was easy to fall for Zach Pleasant.
“Were those fireworks earlier?” she asked. She thought she’d heard the booming pops over the sounds of the TV and her own sighs.
“I don’t know. You tell me,” he replied with a wink.
“Goodbye, Zach.” She started to get up, but strong arms pulled her close.
“Come back here.” He kissed her face and she realized even his annoying-ass sarcasm couldn’t drive her from his bed. “I’m just playin’. Yes, those were fireworks for the guests at the Getlier wedding. I should have taken you out to see them.”
“It’s okay. I enjoyed being indoors with you much more.” Evie paused, wondering if she would regret telling Zach what was on the tip of her tongue. If his ego got too big, one of them would have to sleep on the couch. “I’ve dreamt about this before,” she said. “Well, parts of it. We were in your truck during one of Jesse’s football games.”
“And how’d we do in real life?”
“It was much better. Mostly because you disappear in the middle of my dreams. And this was, you know, real.”
Zach leaned up on his elbow and looked at her, a frown creasing his forehead.
“What do you mean I disappeared in the middle?”
Evie sighed and sat up so she could lean against the headboard. Zach readjusted and pulled her legs over to his side. She liked having him close. She liked the constant contact. “Ever since I woke up in the hospital, I’ve been having these dreams where we’re together, doing all kinds of things. Riding, hanging in the barn, in a school parking lot. Sometimes we’re kissing. Sometimes, there’s more. But every single time, I would loo
k away or close my eyes, and when I’d look back you’d be gone. You’d just vanish.”
Evie winced, the meaning of these dreams suddenly becoming clear. Some part of her brain felt abandoned by him. “Sometimes I feel like I’m going to cry, in my sleep.”
“Jesus, Buck.”
“What?”
Zach leaned down and pressed a firm kiss to her knee. “I owe you another apology.”
“For what?”
“I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. You forgive me, now, but I want you to know that I fucked up.”
Evie looked at the way his fingers were touching her leg. She’d made plenty of mistakes, probably plenty she was glad she couldn’t remember now. “You were a teenager,” she told him. “Or you were young, at least. I don’t remember my teens, but from my diaries it seems like they were filled with lots of unnecessary drama.”
“True—”
“Did I ever tell you how I felt?” Evie asked. She told her diary, but did she tell him?
“No, but I knew.”
“Did I ever ask you to be my boyfriend?”
“Well, Nana Buck wouldn’t let you have a boyfriend, so that’s a no.”
“It sounds like I broke plenty of Nana Buck’s rules.”
“You did.”
“Also, it’s not true that you weren’t there for me. From what I wrote in my diary, you were there for me a lot. There was something about you ditching school with me after my family-tree project.”
“Shit, I remember that,” Zach said with a chuckle. “Mr. Archuleta was a dick. You straight-up told him that you didn’t want to do it because it hurt too much to talk about your parents, and he told you to build a bridge and get over it. He threatened to give you an F if you didn’t turn it in.”
“Well, apparently I did my presentation and then you stayed with me after.”
“We sat in my truck and sang along with that god-awful ‘My Humps’ song on repeat until you started laughing. I still hate the song,” Zach said.
“I’ve tried to think about what might have been going through my mind the night we had our . . . falling out.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, each time I just end up pissed that I can’t remember anything. And then I remind myself that all I can focus on is now and the future. I had fights with Delfi and Britnay too and we grew apart, but there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood there. I want to move forward. I have too many things to think about, so much stuff that I can’t spend energy I don’t have, so you don’t have to apologize anymore. Not for this.”
“Okay, okay. I hear you. Come here.” Evie made room for Zach to move and then she was back in his arms, her head resting on his wonderfully sculpted chest. The TV was still on, but Zach had muted it. Some old black-and-white TV show played on the screen. “What’s stressing you out?” Zach asked. “Tell me.”
“I’ve been watching myself, on television, and I don’t like what I see.”
“What do you mean?”
“We watched Supreme Chef and obviously it was good that I won because it helped my career, but something about it just made me feel awful. Like it had nothing to do with actual cooking or being an actual chef.”
“Yeah, that’s kinda the point of those shows. It’s the competition and the manufactured drama. Not the food.”
“Yeah, that’s what Jesse told me. And then I was thinking about how I met that unhinged woman Melanie on that show. Obviously I can’t contact her and ask her what happened between us, but it still isn’t sitting well with me. When I watched myself on The Dish, I thought I would feel—what’s the word I’m looking for? Determined, maybe? Or inspired.”
“Yeah?”
“I felt like seeing myself on The Dish would give me a good reference point. It would show me what I need to get back to and how much or how little will be asked of me. I also thought it would help me understand how I made the transition from Supreme Chef to cohosting a show.”
“And what happened instead?” Zach asked.
“I was disappointed in myself. I was thinking about all the hard work I must have put in, and even all the work I’ve put in since I was released from the hospital. Does all that work lead me back to a show where I’m not even really cooking? I—I don’t know if I want to go back.” Evie closed her eyes, sudden relief washing over her. It felt good to admit the doubts she was having out loud. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t know enough yet to make any decisions, and for as long as I can, I do want to at least try to hold on to my job at The Dish, but this feeling, it’s just—it’s giving me a lot to think about.”
“Listen, I’m here, if you just want to bounce around ideas, if you just need a sounding board. If you realize you want something else and The Dish ain’t it, Miss Leona or Jesse and I, we can all help you. We’re with you, whatever you decide. I’m sure Nicole will have your back too.”
“I know. Thank you.”
On the screen a man and woman were having an animated conversation. “What show is this?”
“It’s called I Love Lucy.”
“Hmm.”
“Evie.” She looked up at the strange sound in his voice. It made her stomach turn. This bubble they’d created for themselves was about to pop. “Listen, I have to tell you something about Melanie Burns.”
“What is it? You didn’t sleep with her too, did you?”
“No.” Zach laughed. “I’ve never met the woman. Nicole thinks that Melanie may have had something to do with your accident.” Zach paused, and his face contorted a bit before he went on like he was choosing his words very carefully. “She thinks you might have been pushed, but she can’t prove it. She—we didn’t want to tell you because we didn’t want to double down on your stress level on a hunch.”
“Oh.” Evie thought, pointlessly trying to dig up any memories from that night. She had no memory of Melanie, but considering the way she’d acted on the show and the messages she’d written in Evie’s DMs, she wouldn’t be surprised if things between them had escalated and gotten physical. It would explain the tone of her messages too. Maybe Melanie really wanted Evie dead, or at least out of the way. Evie sat up and turned to face Zach.
“She doesn’t know I’m here, right?”
“No. And we’re going to keep it that way. If she did something, we’ll figure it out and she’ll fucking pay for it. Maybe I should have said something earlier—”
“No, I get it. I’ve had a lot to process. This is . . . a lot more. But at least I know to keep her at a distance for real.”
“It’s just a theory Nicole had. It still could have been an accident.”
A theory, sure, but the more Evie thought about it, the more sense it made. She’s been thrown from a horse and just broken her arm. Would slipping down the stairs be enough to put her in a coma? Maybe. But someone shoving her down a flight of stairs would definitely do the trick. A sudden tightening in Evie’s chest made her feel like Nicole may have been right to keep this from her. A possible murder plot was not something Evie was ready to handle.
“Are you okay?” Zach asked before he pressed his lips to her forehead.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She snuggled closer and wrapped her arm around his waist. It was too late now, or too early in the morning on the East Coast to talk to Nicole, but as soon she could she’d ask Nicole to tell her everything about this Melanie Burns theory and figure out exactly what they could do about it.
* * *
Evie sat on the edge of Zach’s bed, waiting as he finished getting ready for his day. They’d been up most of the night talking and making love. She would have spent the whole day in bed with him, but she had to check in with Vega. Plus Miss Leona would be back eventually and it would be rude for Evie not to show her face.
She looked at the flood of text messages that had hit her phone in the last twelve hours. Television personality Chef Evie was pretty dang popular. She’d ask the girls which Happy New Year gre
etings she should respond to and which messages she should ignore after she took a shower and got something to eat.
She felt pleasantly worn out. Zach talked a big game, but he also knew how to back it up. So much of her recovery had felt like an uphill battle, but being in Zach’s bed made her feel pretty damn good. She could learn how to cook and take care of herself again and she could also be a woman who had amazing sex with an incredibly hot guy. What the future meant for them, she had no clue. But she wanted to give herself the room to enjoy what was happening between them in the present.
Zach came out of his walk-in closet, slipping a tie under his collar. “I was thinking about what you said last night,” he said. “About not liking what you saw on Supreme Chef and The Dish.”
“Yeah?”
“Two things. You may not have been really cooking on The Dish, but think about the viewers at home, right? You were teaching them to cook. And from what I understand, you were the biggest ratings draw to the show. Supreme Chef was bullshit drama, but some people need stuff like that to unwind. Ask Lilah her feelings about the whole Housewives franchise. With The Dish, people are watching to learn something from someone they like. You. You are a part of something that people want and need. If it’s not fulfilling moving forward, I get it, but it’s just something to consider.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
“And you do have to cook a little. You have to demonstrate a good chunk of the steps.”
“You’re right. What was the second thing?”
“Ask Lilah to put on The Chef ’s Corner for you. I’ve seen a few episodes and it’s about actual chefs and the food they make. I think you might find more of the inspiration you’re looking for there.”
“Thank you. I’ll try that.”
“You ready?”
Zach was in another perfectly tailored suit and his cowboy hat. Shiny black boots with swirls carved into the leather finished the look. She gave him a once-over, then cocked her head at him as he adjusted his Stetson.
“You know how good you look in that hat, don’t you?”
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