by Zara Cox
This man was strong, powerful, but sensitive in a way that woke fear deep in her heart. If she wasn’t careful, he could devastate her. And all even before he’d laid a single finger on her.
He turned back to her and sent her one of those soul-melting smiles. Then, his earpiece back in place, he launched into another business conversation.
She tried to read a magazine for a while then felt her lids beginning to droop. It was as she was falling asleep, nestled in the thick luxury of the cashmere throw that the thought intruded.
She’d never asked him what he’d meant by when the time is right.
Chapter Seven
Her breath caught at the heart-stopping sight of the Eiffel Tower. Beside her, in the luxurious cocoon of his Maybach Laundaulet, Zachary turned to her and smiled, but there was a distance in his eyes—the same distance she’d noted when they’d landed half an hour ago—that made alarm tingle down her spine.
“Is this your first time in Paris?” he asked.
“No, my parents brought me here for my twenty-first. I promised myself I’d return one day.” She didn’t add that she’d promised to return with the man she loved. The man she’d thought for a long time would be Chris.
She pressed agitated hands on the soft white leather seat and forced the thought away. They were in the city made for lovers.
When, exactly, she and Zachary Savage would attain that status was beginning to loom like a specter of uncertainty in her mind. She glanced at him and noted his jaw was set harder than it had been minutes ago.
Was he worried about his meeting? Did the city hold memories in some way that didn’t sit well with him?
“This isn’t your first time, obviously,” she ventured.
“No, it isn’t. But I hope after today I can stay clear for a while.”
She frowned. “Why would you want to stay clear?”
“I’m hoping to conclude my business today. Then there won’t be any need to return.”
His phone pinged with yet another phone call. The last twelve hours had shown her just how busy he was. His phone never stopped ringing. She was stunned he’d managed to keep it off while he was touring Shanghai with her.
This time the conversation was conducted in low, seductive lilting French, which turned surprisingly clipped before he hung up.
“Everything okay?” she couldn’t help but ask. More and more she was realizing just how little she knew about him.
He turned those mesmerizing eyes on her but when he smiled, it looked strained. “Not yet, but I’ll take care of it. We’re here.”
Her attention was drawn from him to their destination.
The Indigo Belle Plaza was even more breathtaking than the Indigo Shanghai had been. This building took up a proud and possessive corner of the Rue de Rivoli, with stunning historical architecture steeped in every stone. It exuded wealth and class in a way very few buildings could, from the porticoed windows to the indigo flags fluttering in the breeze alongside French flags from what looked like solid gold masts.
Her heart hammered as she was helped from the back seat by a starchly-uniformed doorman. Just as in Shanghai, Zach was treated like royalty.
She watched, semi-bemused as the manager bowed and scraped them into the elevator that took them to the presidential suite.
They’d barely entered when Zach turned to her. That restless distance was still in place, making her heart pound with dread. Before she could summon the courage to ask him what was going on, he started to back away.
“Make yourself at home. Order room service. I will be back in a few hours.”
“O…okay.”
He started walking to the door and stopped, then spun on his heel. “And Bethany?”
“Yes?”
Weirdly, the sight of his clenched fists made her feel better. His gaze devoured her, frightening yet reassuring her that he was just as surely being driven insane by the sexual charge arcing between them as she was. In that she wasn’t alone.
“Know this. Everything changes on my return.”
***
Everything changes on my return.
The words reverberated in her head as the hours passed with excruciating slowness. She showered, she channel-hopped, she rearranged the meager clothes she’d packed.
Then she ordered the most heavenly burger and fries she’d ever tasted.
And still only two hours had passed.
Unable to sit still any longer, Bethany grabbed the glossy Hotel Guide. The boutiques listed in the shopping section had her springing up and snatching up her bag.
As she left the room, she thanked her stars she hadn’t succumbed to Chris’s pressure to use the nest egg she’d received from her grandparents for a deposit for a bigger apartment. Granted, using it to splurge on underwear for her assignation with a hot, sexy billionaire was not quite what she’d had in mind, but what the fuck, Chris-the-A-hole had left her in no doubt that the world could turn upside down and take a dump on her within a blink of an eye.
Go large or go home!
She bought six pairs of matching bra and panties from the first shop. Make up with heavily accented tips on application came from the assistant in the second shop. But it was the third shop that took her breath away. The dresses were all in shades of indigo. Her heart hammered as she flicked through long evening dresses and short casual but sophisticated day wear. Touching the color that was so special to Zachary made her feel close to him somehow.
Bethany wasn’t sure how long she was in the shop but she began to notice the curious looks from the sales assistants.
After she was asked whether she needed help a fifth time, she chose a short, lace dress that ended mid thigh, along with a silk pantsuit with gold pumps and hoop earrings to match.
Exiting, she dashed in to the last shop, a perfumery, and stocked up on her favorite scents.
The porter was waiting by the doors and held it open for her. “I’ll take your bags, ma’am.”
She laughed. “I’m twenty-four. Ma’am-ing me hurts my feelings. And I can carry my own bags, thanks.”
He nodded with a dignity that seemed at variance with his immense size. He summoned the elevator, and they rode to the penthouse in silence.
A quick glance at her watch as the elevator slid open showed she’d been downstairs two hours. With any luck, she didn’t have much longer to wait till Zach—
“Where the hell have you been?”
Her bags fell from her hands.
He stood there, larger than life, eyes ablaze with hunger and…anxiety?
“You’re back,” she said stupidly, but once again, the sheer beauty of him had rendered her brains useless. And the fact that he’d been anxious about her sent a thrill of delight surging through her.
Then she saw his clenched jaw and the whitened skin around his mouth. The guy was seriously riled about something.
“I thought you’d left.”
She frowned. “Why would I leave?”
He clawed a hand through his hair. “I didn’t intend to be away this long and when I got back and you weren’t here…I thought you’d changed your mind. You didn’t tell Philip where you were going—”
“Because I only went downstairs to get a few things…”
His gaze left hers and he skimmed over the shopping bags. But barely a second later, that unstoppable gaze was back on her, pinning her to the spot, stopping the breath in her lungs.
He sauntered forward. This time she noticed his fists weren’t clenched. And the look in his eyes had changed from hungry yearning to predatory warning. “You went shopping?”
She nodded, unable to speak past the crazy hammering of her heart.
“Philip would’ve gotten you anything you needed.”
“I didn’t…I was going stir crazy here. I just wanted to step out for a little while.”
He reached her, walked past her and shut the door. The lock slid home with an ominous click that sent a shiver through her.
She felt hi
m behind her but his scent, his powerful aura was all around her, reeling her in, claiming her. “You scared the shit out of me, Bethany.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Be that as it may, I intend to make you pay for that. What was the last thing I said to you before I left, Bethany?” he growled in her ear.
“You…said…everything changes on your return?” she all but whispered.
“Yes, I did.” Warm fingers touched her wrists and drifted up her arms in a whisper-thin caress that sent sensation rushing through her. “I’ve waited what seems like forever for this moment. And I come back to find you gone. Philip didn’t know where you’d gone. Do you know what that did to me?” he whispered.
“N…no.”
“I was desperate, Bethany. I saw all the plans I’d made going to shit.”
“You made plans?” she asked breathlessly.
“A million. Ninety-nine per cent of them involved the many and varied ways I was going to fuck you. If you’d run out on me, I’d have had no choice but to hunt you down.” He laced his fingers through hers, brought both hands behind her back. “Because walking around another minute with this would’ve killed me.” Still holding her hands, he placed hers directly over his cock as his teeth sank into the soft flesh of her shoulder.
She gasped as the thick, long ridge of his rock-hard cock filled her hands. Her fingers closed on him and his deep moan echoed around the room. The ragged, masculine sound drenched her sex with heat. She tightened her grip, eager to hear it again.
He hissed in her ear and clamped his hands over hers. “Easy, baby. I haven’t prematurely blown my load in a long time. But waiting this long to have you has driven me to the edge and it won’t take much more to drive me over it.” He eased her hands from him and turned her around.
Fierce heat burned in his eyes, and the hunger stamped on his face stopped her breath. With a grunt, he pulled her close, slid powerful hands into her hair and angled it towards him.
“What did I say about kissing you?” he murmured, hot against her lips.
“A…a kiss for every minute we’ve been together?”
“You remembered. Good girl.”
His mouth was hard and demanding, his tongue a lash of pleasure that took over her senses in the blink of an eye. He sucked, he bit, he cajoled her into giving him more.
Before she could take another breath, Bethany found herself glued from breast to thigh against him. He devoured her mouth the way he’d promised to devour her body. Liquid oozed between her sex as he feasted on her with a shameless desire that echoed the one rocking through her body.
He lifted his head only when the need to breathe became paramount. But only the barest inch, as if now he’d given himself permission to touch, as if he couldn’t bear to be more than a hairsbreadth away. He touched his forehead to hers.
“Oh, sweet baby. I’m going to enjoy fucking you. I’m going to fuck you very hard for a very, very long time. And you’re going to love every second of it.”
His hands left her hair and drifted down her neck to her shoulders. He looked down, saw her hard, tight nipples and growled. “And when you’re too tired to move, I’m going to suck on those pretty tits until you beg me to fuck you all over again.”
He gripped her waist, swung her into his arms and headed for the large sofa in the living room. The early evening sunlight slanted into the room, casting it in a golden glow. All around them, Zachary’s wealth and influence demanded the commensurate awe and appreciation, but Bethany only had eyes for the stunningly gorgeous guy in front of her. The man who licked his lips as his gaze raked her from head to toe and back again.
She let her own gaze drift over him—the hard chest she’d felt under her hands moment ago, lifted as he breathed. And below the belt of his trousers, the rigid erection she’d felt was outlined, large and thick.
She went for his belt, unable to wait one moment longer to see his cock.
The need burning through her felt alien, raw, the anticipation almost painful.
“Bethany, wait.”
She whimpered. “No, I don’t want to wait. I want you. Inside me. Right now.”
His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. “Shit.”
“This wasn’t part of your plan, was it?” A sense of power fizzed through her when she noticed the visibly shaking hand he clawed through his hair.
“I wanted to taste you all over, feast on that sweet cunt—”
“I want that too. But later. Please Zach, you’ve made us wait for two days. Don’t make me wait any longer.”
“Bethany—Ah, fuck.”
The dress she’d worn to go shopping downstairs was ripped from her body. Her simple cotton bra suffered the same fate. At the first sight of her bared breasts, he froze.
“Jesus. You’re incredible.” He lowered his head and ran his tongue over the upper slopes of her breast, both hands cupping her and molding her as he grazed his teeth lightly over her flesh. He sucked a nipple into his mouth and moaned deep and long in appreciation. Several long flicks of his tongue then he moved to the other breasts and delivered the same treatment.
His moans of appreciation sent a fever of need through her. “God, you’re so beautiful.”
She swayed and he clamped one arm around her waist, twisted her round and stretched her out on the sofa.
“I can’t repay the compliment if you insist on being fully dressed.”
His laugh was deep, rich and intensely arousing.
Bethany had never imagined she could get wet just from a man’s laugh. But hearing Zachary laugh as he unbuttoned his shirt made her sex tingle even harder as liquid pleasure slicked her.
At the first sight of his smooth, chiseled chest, desire slammed through her. She felt her eyes widen as she took him in. His shoulders were powerful, easily fit enough to support her legs as he slammed into her. Arms, corded with sleek muscle, flexed as he reached for his zipper. His breathing turned ragged. When she looked into his eyes, his gaze was fixed on her.
“You lick your lips like that when you watch my body and one of us will end up paying a very steep price.”
With a start, Bethany realized that was exactly what she’d been doing. “I can’t help it. You’re gorgeous,” she blurted.
He inhaled sharply, as if she’d surprised him. His movements were slightly jerky as he shucked off his shoes and socks and stepped out of his trousers.
Gloriously naked, Zachary Savage was a pure work of art. But Bethany’s gaze was riveted on the heavy length of his cock, which he now gripped as he gazed hungrily down at her body.
Jesus, he was big! A spike of apprehension pierced her desire causing a shiver to run through her body.
He noticed and stepped closer. Lowering himself over her, he kissed her until the apprehension melted away. “You don’t need to worry, beautiful Bethany. I’ll take care of you.”
His hand slid over her breast as he sealed his mouth over hers again. Pleasure ricocheted through her as he tweaked her nipple then drifted lower over her abdomen. Gentle fingers traced the seam of her panties then dipped lower.
One thick finger grazed her clit. Her hips jerked so violently, she almost dislodged his hand.
“Christ, you’re so responsive,” he groaned against her mouth, then dipped his finger again, teasing, torturing, delivering pleasure that sent fire rushing over nerves.
His mouth left hers, nipping at her earlobe before sucking on it. Down below, his one finger joined the other and commenced a steady, relentless rhythm.
“Zach! Oh, God!” Her thighs shook then widened to accommodate him, her hips rocking into a rhythm of their own as her pleasure escalated.
Zach’s mouth trailed lower, captured one nipple and pulled it deep into his mouth. She cried out as his thumb replaced his finger in an ever-increasing friction that made stars explode behind her lips. One finger dipped inside her pussy. Her muscles clenched immediately around him, gripping with wild need as blistering hunger tore through her.
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“What a greedy cunt you have. Do you want more? Do you want another finger? Hmm?” His tongue swirled around her wet nipple, his hot breath washing over her flesh as he spoke.
“Yes! Please…yes.”
“Greedy girl. My lovely, greedy, exquisite Peaches.” He finger-fucked her slowly as the words tumbled from his lips.
But still he only used one finger.
“Zach…”
“Tell me what you want, baby.”
“More…I want more of that.”
One finger joined the other. Her muscles stretched as her hips rode him faster, faster, her breath coming in choppy sobs. When her head started to thrash on the cushion, he speared his fingers into her hair and held her still.
“Look at me, Bethany. I want to see how fantastic you look when you come.”
Her mouth dropped open on a gasp as sensation rocked through her.
Silver eyes speared into hers, giving her no chance of looking away. Expert fingers sank deeper into her, curling just at the right angle to hit her where she most needed it.
She screamed as the first wave hit her.
“Fuck, yeah. That’s it. Give it up for me, Peaches.”
Her hips bucked wildly as a tidal wave of pleasure ripped through her. Without breaking eye contact, he lowered his head and took one nipple between his teeth, biting down on the hard tip. She came harder, unbelievably finding her orgasm prolonged as he tortured her flesh.
He pulled his fingers out of her and used the pad of his hand to smear the slick wetness over her sex. Then he went to work again, rubbing her whole sex with a firm pressure that made her pulse spike higher.
“Jesus…Zach…I can’t…”
“Yes, you can. Just immerse yourself in it, baby. Your body is dying to experience it again. See how your hips are fucking my hand?”
Shocked, she looked down and watched her hips roll into his hand in perfect symmetry to his rubbing. “Don’t deny yourself. Just let it go.”
Her body felt light and leaden all at once. Her breasts ached with a need so acute that she cupped them to ease the pain.