by Aubrey Parr
On their way back to the hotel, with the trunk of the cab filled to the brim with bags, Lauren realized this was the perfect day to keep her mind from obsessing over seeing Zane later. It seemed weird that she missed him. They had just met. Now, with a quiet moment in the car, he was the first thing that came to her mind. A wonderful afternoon with her friends would be followed up by a perfect night with her perfect man. Leaning her head back on the seat, she closed her eyes and smiled.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Zane paced the small area behind the bar, waiting for Lauren to arrive. Looking down, he half expected to see a ditch carved into the floor where he was walking.
“Okay, Loverboy, go sit down,” Jennifer, his coworker, laughed.
He rolled his eyes, knowing he must have looked like some kind of love-sick idiot. But as he came around the bar, there was Lauren.
It felt like the heavens sang. She was wearing fitted black pants and a delicate pink top with a simple ruffle down the front. Her hair was down, perfectly framing her face. She stood at the entrance of bar, clutching her little purse, as though she wasn’t sure if she should come and sit with him. Was she nervous for their date, too?
“I’ve got it covered, Zane,” Jennifer told him. “Go! She’s adorable, by the way.”
“She sure is. Thanks again.” Not able to take his eyes off Lauren, he lifted his hand up as a quick goodbye and went to her.
He wasn’t in his uniform, and Lauren loved his style. His hair was tamed back out of his face with a bit of product, and he wore casual dark jeans and white t-shirt. His grey unbuttoned sweater, heavy belt, and black boots gave a sexy I-wanna-sleep-with-my-math-tutor look about him.
Stopping to say hello wasn’t an option. As soon as she was in arm’s reach, he grabbed her face and kissed her. Every ounce of frustration from the day melted with the taste of her. He searched her mouth eagerly, not caring who saw them. She let out a slight moan, and he wanted to completely skip his plan of showing her his city and instead take her back to his tiny apartment.
Lauren was taken completely off guard. His spontaneity was such a turn on. At some point, her purse dropped to the floor, and she reached up and grabbed his hair. She pulled hard, knowing its effect on him. Zane let go of her lips, added sweet peck on her ear, and whispered, “Hello.”
“Well hello to you.” She found his lips again for one more innocent kiss. “Should we be get out of here?”
“Yes, we should.” With that, he took her hand in his and lead her through the lobby to the massive revolving door.
…
Rich saw his Blondie and Zane walk through the lobby hand in hand. Why did she feel the need to make him jealous every chance she got? The smiles on their faces made it all the worse. He recognized the look of desire in their eyes. She should be going to his bed, not some bartender’s.
This feeling was supposed to be under control. It hadn’t reared its ugly head in years. He grabbed the arms of the chair and squeezed, taking his frustration out on them, rather than the wall of the small office. In the past, he had let his anger get the better of him, punching a hole in the wall. Coming up with a story to cover that had been difficult. For the moment, his breathing techniques were doing some good. His heart rate was slowing. He had suppressed the need to punch something. He leaned back and closed his eyes. His physical body may have calmed, but the anger inside was still boiling over. He wasn’t sure how to stop the feelings if they got much worse. He had kept a check on this side of himself for years. What was it about Blondie that was bringing them to the surface again?
Luckily, he worked the night shift; he’d know if she came back or if she would act like a little tramp and stay the night with Zane. Rich couldn’t fester about this all night. He needed to find something to keep his mind busy, or he might easily lose control. He was straddling the line of sanity now as it was.
…
The bar couldn’t have been more perfect. It was as New York as it gets. Not quite pretentious, but the atmosphere still had an air about it. The polished brass accents stood out from the mahogany bar, and the green marble counter was impossible to miss. Zane and Lauren sat at the heavy bar stools and ordered their first round. On this trip, Lauren had been introduced to dirty martinis, and there was no turning back. Zane ordered a dark beer of some sort.
Sitting there together felt surreal. Lauren placed her small legs between the thick muscles of his thighs, and he absent-mindedly ran his hands along them. They felt like a couple out for an evening cocktail in the city they shared. That wasn’t the case though. In actuality, Lauren lived four states away. Not even little states that could be driven through in an hour.
What the hell was she thinking? Just the morning before, heartbreak had come to visit her in her own apartment. Zane had the potential to break her heart all over again. Her brain wasn’t allowing her to comprehend leaving him tomorrow. The thought made her stomach ache. Shaking it off, she smiled up at the handsome man across from her. Looking into his eyes made her entire body ache, but this time, she ached for his touch. Tomorrow was inevitable, but she still wanted tonight. Her heart be damned, she wasn’t going to miss a night with him.
Recognizing the look in her eyes, Zane reached up and lightly held the sides of her cheeks in his hands. This woman could do crazy things to his life. He wondered what he wouldn’t do for her. “It’s taking everything in me to not ask you to come back to my place right now.”
“Show me a little bit of New York City, and then we can get to that.” Lauren leaned her body into his for another quick kiss. Something to tide them over for a bit.
Zane took a deep breath as she sat back down on her barstool. “You are going to be the death of me.” He shot her a mischievous look, and it only made Lauren laugh and still want him even more.
“Finish your beer, and let’s get out of here.” Lauren held the delicate glass between her thumb and forefinger and threw back the rest of her martini.
“Slow down, sweetheart, what’s the rush?” Zane knew the answer as well as she did, and he couldn’t make it through the short sentence without a laugh escaping him. In his past relationships, the desire was never quite equal. Women who he was head over heels for didn’t seem to want anything serious. And if someone was all over him, he didn’t fall as hard. This attraction between them now was intense and mutual. He could see it in Lauren’s eyes. It took until he was thirty-two, but the stars had finally aligned for him.
With one enormous gulp, he finished his drink, before tossing some cash on the bar and grabbing Lauren’s hand. “We’ve got a city to see. Let’s go.”
“Where are we headed?”
“It was hard to narrow down. There’s so much to do in this city. I wish we had more than tonight. New York during the day has a life of its own as well.”
“Are you its spokesperson?” Lauren joked and held onto his arm as they walked out of the restaurant.
“You think you’re pretty funny, huh? I love this city. I want to show you everything. I wish I could show you the Bronx, where I grew up. There’s nothing like a day at the Bronx Zoo.” It made him smile to imagine her excitement when they saw the animals. “And Brooklyn, where your brother lives. There is so much to do in that part of town. There are botanical gardens and museums. So many museums.”
“Do you like art?” Lauren asked, thinking of Kate and her love for it.
“I do. My grandfather taught me about art from a young age. He always said ‘art can be a great investment, you just have to want to look at it every day.’”
“Kate’s husband is the artist, Dominic Price.” She watched for his reaction, expecting a good one.
Zane stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her, causing a human traffic jam on the sidewalk. “Dominic Price… The Dominic Price. That’s Kate’s husband? No wonder they have a plane.” Zane shook his head, trying to wrap it around the idea that he’d been chatting it up with Dominic Price’s wife and her friends.
“Funny thing is
, that’s Nicole’s plane,” Lauren laughed as she tugged his arm to keep him walking.
“Who are these people?” Zane asked, awestruck.
“I asked the exact same question when I first met them.” Lauren’s laughing continued. His reaction was priceless. “When you lit up, talking about museums, I figured you might like that little bit of information.”
“It was good,” Zane said as he led her around another corner. “Besides museums, there are so many things I wish I could show you.”
“Luckily, my new friends have a plane. Maybe I could visit you.”
With that, Zane stopped and turned to look at the beautiful creature next to him. He leaned his head into her hair and let out a low growl sound. He slowly walked her over to the brick wall next to them. Taking her hands, he placed them around his neck. She held on, and he found her lips again. He pressed her up against the wall, and his body felt a small release from the desire building inside of him. Between kisses, he asked her to visit him again.
Lauren leaned her head back to look into his eyes. “If I promise to come back and have a sight-seeing visit with you, will you take me to your place now?”
Zane grabbed the back of her thighs and lifted her up. Lauren wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed his lips, his chin, his neck. She knew this could very well be the most romantic moment she would ever experience for the rest of her life. It was like a scene out of the movies. The rest of New York continued with its night as if they weren’t even there. It was simply another minute in the monotony to so many. But to Lauren, it was everything.
Zane wasn’t sure if he could make himself wait any longer, but a blur of yellow caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Without putting her down, he leaned his body towards the street and raised his hand to hail the cab.
“We’re not going to end up on one of those taxi confessional shows, right?” Lauren hoped.
“No! Plus these cabs aren’t exactly clean. You’re not going to be wanting to do much of that in here,” he whispered to her, holding open the yellow door.
The ride to his place was just as exhilarating, the anticipation building in both of them. Lauren curled her little body into the crook of his shoulder. Once again, it felt familiar, like a normal couple taking a cab home from their night out. This was too easy to settle into. Both of their hearts were at stake. And what they were about to go do was only going to make it harder.
Neither seemed to care.
CHAPTER NINE
Cam’s night couldn’t have been any longer. As soon as he arrived, there was a call out to a domestic dispute, leaving no time to review the case files from four years ago. He hauled the box home with him, determined not to sleep until he knew his baby sister was safe. He kicked the door closed and tossed the box on the little coffee table between his small couch and the television on the wall. Off came the uniform, replaced by a pair of sweats. He cracked open a beer, looked at the box in front of him, and sat down on the couch.
After an hour or so, he had piles of paper all over the table, scattered all around the couch, and on the floor. He organized the files as best he could, based on incidents. There were four similar attacks over a two-year period. They were connected by the fact that every victim woke up in the same spot, with no idea of what had happened. And they had all been guests at the same hotel- the one Lauren was in now.
Cam found notes from different officers interviewing the hotel employees. There were also lists of who was employed at the time of the attacks. Zane’s name was only on the last list. He hadn’t worked there during the first three. He was also cleared, given he wasn’t working on the night of the last attack. That made Cam feel better. Still, something about these assaults gave him the chills. Something wasn’t right. Why had they stopped? Was the attacker getting better, or had he moved on to killing his victims? Cam wondered if he needed to look into cases where women went missing from the general area. Were any of them guests at the hotel?
He needed to stay focused. He leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes, letting his mind sort through the information. If he got ahead of himself, important details would slip through the cracks. Which people were employed there during all four attacks, who were also working those nights? There was a place to start. He opened the drawer of his coffee table and grabbed a highlighter.
With his vision blurring, Cam finished his calculations. He was left with only twelve male employees. Seven were back of the house workers that most likely wouldn’t interact with guests. He wasn’t going to completely dismiss them, but one of the other five was probably his man. He grabbed the interview notes. Two of the five were restaurant servers at the brunch shift. One was a concierge, one worked at the front desk, and one was the manager. All of them would have access to the guests’ room numbers. But five options were much better than the needle in the haystack he had started with.
…
Approaching the door to his place, Zane realized that most people weren’t used to New York City apartments. Then again, the tiny house movement did show the rest of the country how most of his city had been living for years now.
“So, you’ve seen those tiny house shows, right?” He stopped with the key in the lock.
“It’s that little, huh?” Lauren kissed his cheek.
“Well, the apartment is.” Zane raised an eyebrow and kissed her deeply.
Continuing the kiss, he turned the key and pulled her inside. Since the moment Lauren walked into his bar, he had imagined her here. In his bed. Lauren opened her eyes and stepped away from Zane to take in her surroundings. It wasn’t as tiny as the fad of little houses she had seen on TV, but it was small. The exposed brick gave it personality, and the large window would give it light during the day. The ceiling was tall, with shelves so high they almost reached it.
She was standing in between the small kitchenette and the table that served as dining and computer table both. Past that was a small couch with a TV on a swivel stand across from it. Towards the far end of the room, there was a stark white bed and night stand with a lamp. Shelves continued up the wall there as well. The whole place was maybe double the size of her dorm room in college, but she loved it. She could tell the deep window well had a space to sit on. After she ravished Zane, she wanted to cozy up there with a book.
“I’m afraid all I have to offer you is a beer,” he told her.
“I’m a beer girl as well. I’ll take one,” she said, while inspecting some of the things on his shelves. Almost every inch of his small apartment was turned into useable space, but it didn’t appear cluttered. It was all a representation of Zane’s life, which meant it was all important. She smiled, lightly touching an old picture of what was most likely Zane as a boy, standing with his grandfather. Her sexy bartender was becoming all the more real in front of her eyes. He wasn’t just a man that she’d spend the night with (then dream about forever). He was a someone with a history and a future. She wanted to be part of that future. But neither of them were in a place to make a long-distance relationship work. They couldn’t rely on Nicole’s plane to see each other.
As Zane walked up with two bottles of beer, Lauren took a deep breath and shoved those concerns to the back of her mind. She wasn’t about to ruin the mood with the real-life problems they’d face tomorrow.
“Are we smart to be doing this?” he asked, handing her the beer. Could he read her thoughts, or was he just as concerned?
She wasn’t sure how to answer the question. If she said yes, she risked him doing the right thing and ending the night from concern for her heart. Not wanting to lie, she blew some air out of the side of her mouth for the extra moment to think.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?” she replied. “Because I don’t want to. I want you, even if only for tonight.”
After a long swig of her beer, she set down the bottle and wrapped her arms around his neck. He leaned his forehead over onto hers, and she watched him close his eyes. Apparently, he didn�
��t want her to answer the question, either.
“Tomorrow will be difficult when you leave,” he stated simply.
“Leaving now would be difficult, too.” She kissed his lips sweetly.
It was all the convincing Zane needed. He kissed her deeply and straightened his back, easily lifting her small frame off the ground. Excitedly she wrapped her legs around his waist and grabbed his hair, pulling his head back. His sexy moan escaped as she kissed his throat. The rough stubble on his chin shocked the sensitive skin on her face and turned her wild with hunger for him. He inched them towards his table. Its contents shook when she landed softly on top.
“God, you’re beautiful.” Zane framed her face with his hands and looked into her eyes. Then, slowly, he lifted the delicate material of her thin pink top. She raised her arms to help, and he tossed it aside. Lauren took her turn to peel his grey sweater off and let it drop to the floor. As she began to lift his t-shirt, she stopped to feel the strong muscles in his abs.
Their connection sent chills through both of them. Everything had stopped and stilled, but the jolt of her touch turned everything upside down. Zane growled with passion and pulled off his shirt. Tattoos covered both shoulders, and she leaned in to kiss one of them. The man was sexy enough before, as her should-be surfer behind the bar. But this man...
His blonde hair hung disheveled in his face, and his muscles, covered in masculine ink, were more thrilling than she had dreamt. Staring at him, bare-chested and brawny, wearing only his jeans… she wanted him inside of her now. Lauren laughed as he pushed her body back and slid her pants off, taking her underwear with them. Naked on his little table, she watched in anticipation as he kicked off his shoes and undid his thick belt and jeans.