by Zara Cox
“You’re very sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“I know what I want. And I always get it.”
“Or everything you’ve just said you weren’t going to say could just be one huge, cocky line carefully designed to get you the same result.”
His jaw tightened a touch but his avid stare continued to bore into her. To hypnotize her. “It’s not a line, Bethany. You know that. You’ve just admitted you felt it. What I felt when I saw you from this room—you felt it, too, even before we’d exchanged a single word.”
Although she wanted to agree, Bethany held back. Her instincts screamed that giving in too easily to this man would be dangerous. “It’s a long cake walk from feelings to fucking, Mr. Savage.” Even his surname tasted foreign on her tongue, exotic and exciting, and charged with the endless possibilities shimmering in his eyes.
His nostrils flared. “Not for us. In our minds, we’ve already fucked a hundred times in a hundred different ways. Mental copulation is just as powerful as the real thing.”
Jesus! “And did I like it, this hypothetical fucking?”
He grinned with complete and utter masculine confidence, his white-toothed smile transfixing her. “You wouldn’t be here, alone with me, if you hadn’t.”
“Mr. Savage—”
“Zach,” he insisted.
“Let’s be clear on one thing. I’m not in a habit of jumping into bed with the first man who crooks his finger at me on a Sunday morning.”
His nostrils flared in a barely contained hint of displeasure. “You won’t be jumping into bed with any other man for the foreseeable future. Let’s get that clear.”
The breath she blew out was both desperate and exasperated. His closeness was doing things to her insides she wasn’t sure she could accurately describe. From the moment she’d set eyes on him, her nipples had peaked into tight, hard nubs. Bethany was sure there was some sort of physical side effect from being this turned on for too long. The racing of her heart alone scared the holy shit out of her. She needed to get out of here, if only to find a moment’s reprieve. But from staring into his eyes, she knew Zachary Savage wasn’t about to let her go.
“Are you going to conduct this search sometime today or am I free to go board your plane?”
For an eternity he didn’t reply. Then he took a single step back. “Drop your purse.”
Holding his gaze, she did as he asked without argument. With a soft thud, her purse landed on the carpet beside them. She didn’t realize just how vulnerable she felt until she didn’t have the imagined security of her purse.
She swallowed hard and waited.
“Lift up your arms.”
A shiver went through her, but she complied, slowly lifting her arms until they were level with her shoulder.
“Higher,” he rasped, his voice strangely compelling.
Licking her dry lips, she raised her arms higher until they were above her head. The action lifted her short dress.
Bethany didn’t have to look down to know her legs were exposed to mid-thigh, that her breasts were pushed high by her stance.
She watched him watch her, her breath coming in pants as he slowly sank down onto his heels.
Slowly, he reached for the heel of her shoe, lifted her foot and widened her stance. Then he grasped her foot and placed it on his knee. Her platform-heeled shoe came off with little resistance.
The moment Zachary Savage touched her, Bethany knew she was thoroughly screwed.
Profound, electric and wild. She marveled that so simple a touch on her heel could elicit such strong feelings.
With precise movements he looked into her shoe, checked the platform and stiletto, then set it aside. He conducted the same scrutiny on her other shoe, then lowered her foot.
He raised his head and locked his dark grey eyes on her as his fingers drifted up her ankles, over her calves. When he touched the back of her knees, she couldn’t stop a soft moan from escaping her throat. He paused, his stare curious and hungry, then he continued upward, upward until his hands were underneath her dress, over the super-sensitive skin of her hips.
Searching fingers grazed the edge of her panties, traced the cotton to the space between her legs. Bethany saw him swallow as his fingers encountered her wet heat. But he didn’t linger.
Lips clamped together as if holding himself together with the utmost control, he let his fingers drift to the top edge of her panties and then to the sides before withdrawing.
She almost groaned in disappointment as he continued his search over her dress. Large, strong hands travelled around her waist, his grip sure and powerful as he searched upward over her midriff.
He rose to tower over her. Without her heels, she came just below his shoulders. Again her feeling of vulnerability escalated. He was so tall, so strong and powerful. He could break her with a single snap.
And yet, looking into his face, she saw a gentleness in the depths of all that wild and savage need.
Zachary Savage wouldn’t hurt her.
But he could certainly kill her with lust if he chose to just rest his hands beneath her breasts like that.
As if sensing her agitation, he moved his fingers, followed the line of her bra without palming her breast the way she yearned for him to.
Although…Sweet Jesus. This was sexier than she’d ever imagined. Way sexier. This push and play between them, the touching and yet not touching…
She bit her lip against another groan when his hands grasped her waist tightly and insistently before he let go.
“Turn around.”
Her sex pulsed harder, liquid heat pooling between her thighs. A hairsbreadth away from becoming one hot mess, she turned and placed heated hands against the cool glass.
This time he started from the top.
He lifted her hair and fingered the heavy tresses with long, slow movements.
At one point, Bethany thought he lifted a strand to his nose and inhaled, but her senses were so overwhelmed that she couldn’t be sure.
Again, he searched the straps of her bra then moved lower to her waist.
He was just about to skim her panties when the click of the intercom echoed through the room.
“Would Indigo Lounge guests please make their way to the VIP room, please? Boarding is about to commence.”
She exhaled in a rush and started to lower her arms.
“Not yet. There’s no rush.”
“But, we…I have to go.”
He stepped closer and caged her in, one hand either side of her on the wall. “I own the plane, beautiful,” he whispered in her ear. “It doesn’t fly unless I say so.”
“Okay, but you’re offering a service and you have a duty to provide a great one.”
“I also have a duty to make sure my rules are upheld. And you’re not leaving this room until I’m sure you’re fully compliant with my wishes.”
His fingers walked up the glass to rest over hers. Interlacing his through hers, he slowly lowered their arms. He let go of her hands and he shifted behind her. Another powerful surge of electricity scorched her as she felt his hands move to her ass. She closed her eyes against the potent sensation and whimpered like a helpless kitten.
He cupped the heavy globes, molded them, then squeezed tightly.
Then he muttered something she didn’t quite catch, hard and urgent under his breath.
“What did you say?” she asked, her own breaths quick and urgent.
The intercom buzzed again, interrupting his reply, and summoning guests to the VIP room.
Zach grunted his annoyance but when he spoke again, his voice held only dark, heated, implacable promise. This time when he caged her, he pushed right against her, until the hard, rigid imprint of his body was unmistakable against her back. He gripped her backside and pushed against her till his thick, heavy cock rested between her ass cheeks.
“Soon. Very soon, when the time is right, Bethany Green, I’m going to put my cock between these gorgeous peaches and I’m going to
crack-fuck you until you beg me to make you come. And that will be just the beginning.”
***
“Omigod, he said that? He actually said that?”
Bethany held the phone closer to her ear as she examined yet another bottle of eau de toilette in her spacious, jaw-droppingly stunning cabin. She’d run out of fingers to count the many luxuries spread all around her. Just as she’d run out of how many times she’d replayed that conversation in the office over and over in her mind.
“Which part, Keel?”
“The ‘call me Zach and scream my name when I make you come’ part, of course. Jeez!”
“Yep, he said that.”
“And what did you say?”
Bethany paused and shifted the phone to her other ear. “I told him he couldn’t call me Beth when I made him come because only one person calls me Beth and I didn’t think he’d want me thinking of my father when I was in a compromising position.”
Keely erupted in laughter. “You didn’t!”
“Nah, not really, but I may have thought it.” Bethany breathed again. She didn’t feel guilty for skimming over the office episode because she wasn’t sure herself exactly what had happened. Also, that last statement of his felt too intimate, too raw to share. Who’d have thought the idea of being crack-fucked would turn her on so much!
She’d lost half of her mind the moment she’d clapped eyes on Zachary Savage. The other half had gone the moment he’d put his hands on her.
Heat engulfed her again as she relived those electrifying minutes in his office.
Walking beside him and the other guests onto the plane had been the hardest thing Bethany had done for a while.
For one thing, she’d been sure every single one of the twenty-four Indigo Lounge guests knew what she’d been up to in Zachary Savage’s office. And also because her panties had been so wet, every step had been a tortuous reminder of her scandalous behavior.
The last straw had been when Zachary had waved her before him at the foot of the jet steps.
“After you,” he said in that sexy-as-hell voice.
She’d immediately shaken her head. “No, after you this time. I insist.”
His knowing smile had made her face flame. But it hadn’t stopped her from ogling his tight butt as he mounted the steps into the plane.
Once inside though, sexual chemistry had been replaced with another equally potent sensory bombardment.
The interior of the Airbus 380 was exquisite. White and gold with indigo trimmings, the space remodeled exclusively for high-net-worth clients was so stunning that Bethany forget to breathe as she looked around.
A bar area where mimosas and tiny croissants topped with shaved truffles were being handed out stood to one side. Large, sumptuous club seats in groups of four were scattered up the mid-point of the plane. Beyond that, separated by a gold, white and indigo pearl-drop curtain, she spied another seating area.
She accepted a mimosa from a waitress—another stunner, although a redhead this time—and whirled slowly as her gaze lifted.
Above her, a Swarovski crystal chandelier twirled, throwing dazzling light over the group.
“Wow,” she murmured.
“You like it?” Zach enquired from beside her.
She lowered her head and stared at him, feeling that breathlessness all over again when she looked into his magnificent face. “Like it? I love it? It’s stunning!”
He inclined his head but not before she saw a hint of pride wash over his face. That single expression sent a pulse of something she couldn’t quite define through her.
He was pleased by her praise. Bethany wasn’t sure how it was possible that she’d met him less than an hour ago, yet already felt as if she knew him on some visceral level, but the knowledge that her opinion meant something to him touched her deep inside.
“I’m glad.”
“Why,” she asked boldly, curiosity about him eating her alive. “Why are you glad?”
“Because I want your trip to be memorable. Unforgettable. I will not achieve that if you’re unhappy with your surroundings. If there’s anything you need, just say the word and it’ll be yours.”
“Well, you needn’t worry on that score. This is unbelievable.”
His smile showed genuine pleasure. An undefinable feeling shot through her as she gaped at the transformation from gorgeous to incredible.
“Thank you.” He took a sip of his mimosa, his eyes fixed on her. “I’ll give you a tour after take off.”
“Don’t I have a personal guide for that?”
“Why make do with an employee when you can have the boss man?”
“Maybe I don’t want the boss man. Maybe I find the boss man a little overwhelming,” she countered.
He grinned, his face once more transforming from intensely breathtaking to stop-your-heart charming.
Bethany realized in that moment she wanted to see more of that smile. Not that the intense didn’t have its benefits. It was just that she feared for her cardiac functionality if he kept up with that electrifying intensity.
“I’ll go slow, I promise.”
Somehow the husky entreaty didn’t allay her fears. But she found herself nodding all the same.
“Soooo? Have you had the tour yet?”
She refocused as Keely’s question pierced her thoughts.
“No. He’s coming to get me in five minutes.” A small shiver went through her. A quick glance in the bathroom mirror showed the excitement in her eyes. Whirling, she made her way back into her small living room, all the while willing her pulse to slow.
It was just a tour of the plane; part of the normal Indigo Lounge service. Nothing else.
Yeah, right.
“Remember I need photographic evidence.”
“I don’t think I’m allowed to take pictures of the plane’s interior.”
“Not of the plane, dummy. Of Mr. Sexy-And-Reclusive.”
“Oh.” Bethany frowned. “I can’t just take a picture of him, Keel.”
“Of course you can. You just have to wait until he’s passed out from you fucking his brains out.”
Bethany laughed then jumped when she heard the knock on her door.
“He’s here. I have to go,” she whispered then cringed at the breathlessness in her voice.
“Go. Have fun. Don’t spend one second thinking of your sex-deprived friend.”
Bethany stopped with her hand on the door. “Right. Remind me again which of us has had more sex in the last month than the other’s had in the last year?”
Keely’s smug laugh rang in her ears. “Guilty!”
“If I didn’t love you so much, I’d want to kill you.” She blew a kiss down the line, hung up and opened her door.
Zach Savage leaned against the doorjamb, looking dangerously gorgeous. His angled body made the material of his T-shirt stretch sensuously over a sculpted chest and ripped stomach. Following the grooves and landscape of his body made her mouth dry.
She forced her gaze upward before she could move from merely observing to downright ogling then bit back a gasp when she met his stunning eyes again.
He quirked a brow at her, grey eyes scrutinizing her from head to toe before trapping her gaze. With that one single look, he made her whole body tingle wildly.
“Ready?” he asked.
Bethany was certain he was asking about more than just the tour.
Was she ready for whatever was in store for her?
You need to move on. Forget Chris-A-Hole and his newfound love of anal of the male variety.
She sucked in a breath, both to sooth the pain in her heart and to gird her loins.
When she nodded, Zach straightened and held out a hand. A feeling of inevitability washed over her as she stepped next to him and placed her hand in his.
Chapter Four
“So, who’s had more sex in the last month than you’ve had in the last year?”
He dropped the question so casually that she stumbled halfway up the stairs
to the upper deck.
Zachary caught her arm just below the elbow and steadied her. As if she didn’t have enough to contend with, now she looked like a klutz. Which in turn annoyed her.
She faced him on the stairs, another shock exploding in her belly when her eyes clashed with his. “You were eavesdropping?”
“I was waiting for you to answer your door. You chose to say that within my earshot,” he answered without a hint of remorse, as his eyes did that raking over her face thing she found hot and unnerving.
“Even if that’s what happened, don’t you think it’s a bit inappropriate to repeat a private conversation?”
His lips firmed as he rested a hand on the railing a single inch from hers. “Maybe, but I can’t un-hear what I heard, Bethany. And I told you, I’m not good at pretending and so I can’t pretend I’m uninterested in who you were talking to. Especially not when you were discussing a subject matter that holds a certain importance to me.”
Her heart hammered at the strangely hypnotizing effect of his words. She fought very hard to think rationally. This was the real world, albeit a rarefied one right now—but the real world nevertheless. People didn’t say things like that to each other. “How can it hold importance to you? We met a little over two hours ago.”
He just regarded her as if he could see right through her, to the heart of her every need. Her every desire.
“Answer the question, Bethany,” he said simply.
“I was talking to a friend.” She moved away from him then whirled back to face him, irritated by that compulsion to answer and also by his demand to know intimate details about her. “Let’s get something straight right now. What happened in your office doesn’t give you the right to probe into my private conversations.”
His hands fisted at his sides, and she once again got the impression that he was stopping himself from reaching for her. “I beg to differ, but if you prefer we can take this slower—”
“Or we can stop whatever this is dead in its tracks,” she said. Bethany wasn’t afraid to admit the direction of the conversation disturbed her. There was a look in his eyes, one that implied a possessiveness that thrilled and bothered her at the same time. No man had ever looked at her with the focus and intensity with which Zachary Savage was looking at her right now. It made her palms damp and her heart race as if she’d ran a marathon. She passed her tongue over her lower lip and sucked in a breath when he zeroed in on that telling movement. “Umm, maybe this tour was a bad idea. I can get my personal guide to—”