But what really did it for him was what she moaned next.
“Oh, Zane…baby…”
One word.
That one little word was all it took for the veins in his neck to bulge, fighting the urge to roar at the top of his lungs as he filled the condom to the max. Hell, he could have filled three condoms with as much as he came.
“Bloody.” Thrust. “Fucking.” Thrust. “Hell.” One final thrust and they were both done, completely spent.
She may have let slip that endearment in the throes of passion, not totally aware of what she was saying.
But she’d said it.
And she never had before.
She’d always guarded her words around him, kept her real emotions under lock and key. But in that one brief moment, she had been completely free, unencumbered by rules of employment or emotional self-preservation. She’d let loose what was in her heart, and it had spoken volumes. The word held intimacy, affection, possession. All things he craved with her.
“Whoa,” she said between labored breaths, her voice shaky.
He squeezed her tighter. “Yeah. Whoa.”
He wrapped himself around her and just held her there in the frenzied aftermath, both still struggling to catch their breath. The air in the room was thick with intense emotion. Whatever change had just occurred between them was palpable. He felt it, and knew she could, too.
He also knew that neither one of them was going to address it.
Chapter Sixteen
Three days later, Bea was still thinking about their closet sex.
And their shower sex.
And dammit, just sex.
Sex with Zane Price.
But she was thinking about all the other times she’d spent with him, too. The paintballing, the paddle boating, the bar games, the ice cream, the soccer game, and the hours they had spent working together at the store.
The problem was that she couldn’t reconcile the three categories of him she had experienced.
One side of him was a controlling ballbuster she sometimes got so frustrated with she wanted to smack him. Another side starred the playful, witty Zane who was able to make her laugh at the drop of a hat and acted like the happiest man alive. His third side was the sex god version. The one where he was all kinds of smoking hot and could make her feel things that left her quivering in desperation for him.
He had become a constant fixture in her head.
But today she had to focus on something other than him.
Thanks to the contract with Envision Tech, Paxton Designs had been getting bombarded with consultations, and she and Felicity were doing everything they could to keep up. Because of their hectic schedule, they’d decided to hold a group presentation for several of the potential clients, in order to pitch to them and answer questions all at once.
The presentation had to blow all of the clients away. So Paxton Designs had pulled out all the stops. They would be using new software today that allowed them to offer a virtual portfolio of their work to clients. It provided a 3D tour of all their various projects, giving the clients the best imagery of each location. Every house they’d decorated, every office space they’d refurbished, were all available for viewing in the virtual tour.
She and Felicity had been integrating the software at client meetings for weeks, introducing it little by little and familiarizing themselves with the program. But today was the first day they would be using all the applications for a big-scale presentation. It was an innovative program, meaning a costly one, but one they were sure would impress future clients. True, they could have paid off their father’s loan over nine months ago without that expense—something that had initially eaten at her—but it was a sound business investment, and that was how she had to look at it.
When she walked into the Paxton Designs office that morning, she saw the very last thing she wanted to see—Felicity in an utter panic, pacing the showroom floor, taking short, jerky steps. When she heard the door open she looked up at Bea with eyes the size of flying saucers.
“It’s not working!” Felicity shrieked, waving her arms wildly in the air.
Bea calmly walked to her sister with her arms outstretched. “Whoa, whoa. What’s not working?”
“The tour program!” Felicity screamed.
Bea froze. “What do you mean it’s not working?” she asked carefully. She could feel her breakfast start to rise up her throat. Scrambled eggs had not been a good idea.
“I mean the entire 3D tour part of the software isn’t working. The data and all the other information are in there, but the tour application won’t run. I’ve tried everything.”
Shit.
They were screwed without that virtual tour. It was the only way the clients could get a real feel for their work without visiting the sites themselves. Still photographs just didn’t do the work justice. Without the program, they ran the risk of missing out on some big business.
She followed Felicity back to the conference room. She saw the laptop on the table hooked up to a flat-screen television hanging on the wall, but the picture was just a giant Blue Screen of Death.
Not good.
“Did you try rebooting the program?”
Felicity huffed impatiently. “Yes. I tried that and did all of those other troubleshooting steps the help guide suggests, but nothing is working.”
“Did you call the IT guy?”
She started pacing again. “Yes, and nothing he suggested worked, either. He said he wasn’t sure what it could be without getting on the actual computer. But he can’t get here until tomorrow because he has a lot of jobs today. I have no clue what to do.”
Bea typed a few commands on the keyboard, but nothing happened. She checked the settings on the computer and did everything else she could think of—even checking to make sure everything was plugged in properly—but there was no change.
Since Felicity was already freaking out, Bea knew she had to be the calm sister. But it was difficult. She knew next to nothing about this kind of technology. Her mind was spinning like crazy, considering all the possible scenarios. But there was just no way to do the same type of presentation with so many clients without that program. The word disaster came to mind.
Through her swirling haze of panic, one face—one name—started flashing in her head in bright neon lights.
Zane.
The software wasn’t an Envision Tech product, but Zane knew computers. He used to be a software developer, so he might know how to fix it. Right?
She looked down at her watch. The clients would be there in an hour and a half. She had to at least try. She walked into the other room and dialed him.
“Well, I didn’t expect to hear from you this morning,” he purred through the line. “Missed me, did you?”
She wasted no time with pleasantries, though his voice did help soothe some of her nerves. “Zane, I need your help.” She quickly explained the situation and begged him to come take a look.
“I’m on my way,” was his response before he hung up. He hadn’t questioned anything, hadn’t even hesitated to come immediately.
That sent a lightning bolt of…something…straight into her heart.
Felicity’s hysterics weren’t helping, so Bea sent her to the grocery store to buy refreshments for the clients. With the office quiet, she could finally catch her breath and gather her thoughts.
That was, until Zane showed up.
Then she lost her breath all over again. Because he was carrying a huge bouquet of white lilies.
When did he have time to buy those?
He noticed her reaction to the flowers and beamed at her. “See. I told you that information would come in handy one day.”
To her surprise, he dropped the bouquet on a nearby table and came straight to her, took her face in his hands, and placed a deep, comforting kiss on her lips.
She was a goner.
He pulled away, grinning down at her like he hadn’t just tilted her world on its axis. “Show me wha
t we’ve got.”
She didn’t even know if he could actually help. Just the fact that he was there playing her knight in shining armor made it seem like everything was somehow going to be okay. For the first time in her entire life, she actually wanted a savior to rescue her.
He sat down at the table and got to work, while she stood anxiously behind him. Her phone, which she’d left on the table next to the laptop, buzzed with a text. Zane automatically reached for it, and although she had the feeling he hadn’t meant to snoop, she knew he’d glimpsed the message flashing on the screen. She muttered a “thanks” when he wordlessly handed it over.
When she looked down at the screen, she understood why his jaw had noticeably clenched when he gave her the phone.
Billie: Ramon’s. Meet you there tomorrow at 7.
She cringed at how the message probably looked to Zane. Little did he know that Billie was one of her contacts who had managed to procure one of the items on her list for her secret project.
And little did Zane know that Billie was a woman.
The two women had been friends for years, so they’d decided to have dinner while Billie was in town. Not that Bea could tell Zane any of this. Was she even obligated to? She didn’t exactly know where their relationship stood.
Mentally shaking herself, she pushed that to the back of her mind and focused on the issue at hand.
She wasn’t sure how she made it through the next hour. But standing there watching him furiously work on the laptop, squinting at the screen, his dexterous fingers flying over the keys, that was the moment she knew.
She was falling for him.
Hard.
How far along she was in that descent, she couldn’t say. All she knew was that whatever she felt for Zane was real, and it was way more than just lust.
He’d said she didn’t trust others, didn’t ask for help. But when she needed it, she had gone to him for help. Because she trusted him, really trusted him. That wasn’t lost on her, and probably not on him, either. He had been there for her, willingly, without a second thought. As though there had been no other option for him.
She couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same things she did. The urgent need to know began to eat at her, making her want to pull her hair out. She was desperate to hear what he was feeling about her.
To assure herself that she wasn’t the only crazy one in the room.
Chapter Seventeen
“I told you,” Zane said to Bea as they crossed the parking lot of the diner, “you didn’t have to do that.”
Not that he would ever complain about spending more time with her.
She waved him off as they walked over to his car. “And I told you that you saved our asses today, big time, and we’re both extremely grateful. Buying you dinner was the least I could do.”
It was a start. But he could think of more things she could do for him. More things he wanted her to do.
It had taken him almost an hour, but he’d been able to solve the issue with their software so they could give their presentation. He could have completed the task even faster had he not worried over the text message he’d briefly seen on her phone. He didn’t know who Billie was, but he sure as hell wanted to know why he was meeting Bea at a classy Italian restaurant tomorrow night.
Zane had eventually been able to convince himself that it was some type of business meeting. Probably with a client. He couldn’t fathom any other alternative, so he did his best to wipe the entire incident from his mind.
Because he didn’t want anything to tarnish his memory of that afternoon.
He loved that she had come to him for help; there was no denying that. But the best part had been afterward. When she had looked at him like he was her hero. She’d had this goofy smile on her face, making him feel ten feet tall.
He had been hard ever since that adoring smile, so hard he was sure his balls had turned black-and-blue.
He leaned against his car, loving how her eyes followed his movements. “Thanks, but not necessary. I’m just glad I could help.”
“But if I know you,” she said pointedly, though her lips curved up, “you’d use my debt to your own advantage at a time most convenient for you.” She poked him on the chest. “This way, I don’t feel like I owe you.”
He scratched his chin to hide his expression. “Fair point. But I don’t know if dinner qualifies us as being equal. That was a pretty challenging problem. It might take a bit more than a meal to completely cover your debt.”
“Someone’s being greedy.”
He spread his legs when she stepped between them, and pulled her into his embrace. His dick stirred against her thigh, appreciating the new position.
She noticed and her lips quirked. “Very greedy.”
He groaned at the way she pushed her hips into his, deliberately torturing him. “Look who’s talking.”
She giggled and rubbed her breasts against his chest. “So, what did you have in mind, then? To cover my debt?”
“Well, first of all, I don’t think there’ll be much coverage to speak of…”
He trailed off when she started whispering in his ear, licking his jawline. He couldn’t bloody concentrate when she did that.
Oh, but the things this woman did to him.
With phenomenal restraint, he managed to grip her arms and pull her back so he could look into her eyes. “Second of all, would you like to accompany me back to my place?”
She ran her hands down his chest, her fingers circling his nipples. “How do you make such a formal question sound so dirty?”
“One of my many talents, luv.”
When he couldn’t stand the distance any longer, he smashed his lips against hers with a hunger that had them both going from zero to sixty in an instant. Her tongue licked across the seam of his lips and he was done.
“Yes,” she breathed against his mouth before diving back in for another possessive kiss.
That’s what it was, too. Every time he took her mouth, it felt like they were both taking possession of each other’s entire being. As though making a statement to anyone who came too close that only he was allowed to touch her that way, and that he wasn’t up for grabs to any other woman.
And he fucking loved it.
“Yes what?” he asked, trailing kisses down her neck.
“Yes, I’ll accompany you back to your place.”
He smiled against her skin. Damn straight she would. “Mmm…maybe I’ll never let you leave.” The sound of her sharp intake of breath fueled him. He grabbed her hand and placed it over his bulge, guiding her movements when she immediately closed her fingers around his shaft, stroking him through his pants. “This is what you do to me,” he panted. “All of it’s for you, sweetheart.”
She hummed in her throat. “Well, in that case, let’s get out of here so I can play with it.”
He thrust into her hand. “By play with it, I hope you mean take it into your mouth or between your thighs. Or both.”
She put pressure right on his tip, drawing a hiss from between his teeth. “Guess you’ll have to get me home and out of these clothes to find out.”
Home. She’d called his place home.
“I’ll drive.”
He sped out of the parking lot, his goal being to get them to his flat as fast as humanly possible. In the midst of dodging other cars and timing red lights, he felt her nimble fingers unbutton his pants and slide down the zipper without a word.
No, she’s not.
Her fingers slid under his briefs and grasped his straining erection.
Yes, she is.
“What the hell are you doing?” He let out a deep moan when the tip of her finger rubbed over his slit, smearing the moisture that had gathered there.
“Shh,” she crooned. “You just watch the road and let me handle everything down here.”
Easier said than done. “I can’t concentrate when you’re doing that, luv.” Although he wasn’t ready for her to stop, either.
“
Yes, you can,” she told him. “You will because you want this bad enough.”
Christ but he did.
He fought to keep his eyes focused on the road and not on the way her hand worked him. Slow and steady at times, then harder and faster at the base, moving up his shaft. Without warning, she leaned over and gave his tip one good, long lick.
“Fucking hell!”
It was a good thing there were no cars in front of them because his foot had reflexively slammed down on the accelerator. When he glanced down for a second, he knew the image of her dark hair fanned out across his lap as her head bobbed up and down would be permanently engraved in his memory. Most erotic thing he’d ever seen.
“Bloody Christ. You can’t do that. I’m going to lose it.”
She lifted off him, raising her head slightly. See, look what you did. “Either you want to come in my mouth or you don’t,” she said in a low voice. “If you do, shut up and let me suck you. If you don’t, tell me now and I’ll sit back in my seat and get myself off with my own hand.”
Was that supposed to be some type of punishment? Because watching her finger herself would be a gift from God.
But he was in too much pain at the moment to wait until they got to his place. He needed some relief now.
He placed his hand on the back of her head, lightly pulling on the strands. “Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut if you keep yours full.”
He pushed her down onto him, groaning when she not only allowed his manhandling, but immediately took him all the way to the back of her throat.
“Oh, fuck, that’s good. Swallow me down, luv. That’s it.”
How he was able to keep one hand on the wheel, one hand on her head, and still manage to drive safely through DC traffic, he couldn’t understand. A few times, he had to do some quick maneuvering to avoid being seen by other drivers. He wasn’t worried about being caught. He just didn’t want anyone witnessing him getting blown by the sexiest woman on the planet. Especially other men who would ogle her arse, which was sticking up in the air.
Casual Affair (Slow Seductions) Page 12