Strictly Temporary

by Robyn Grady

  Sitting at the table, he poured them both a generous glass of white wine then put some salad from a center bowl on his plate. While Trinity absently found some lettuce, Zack enthusiastically sliced into his eggs. She was moving a mushroom around when, on his second mouthful, he frowned.

  “No good?”

  “I’m sure it’s delicious. I want to clear the air first.”

  He chewed, swallowed. “Clear away.”

  “About that kiss this afternoon.”

  “I’m sure our communication there couldn’t have been clearer.” His fork bobbed at her plate. “Your omelet’s getting cold.”

  “But I’m not finished—”

  “And if the baby wakes up you’ll need some nourishment, so eat now. I promise I’ll listen to everything you have to say later.”

  Trinity nibbled her lip. She didn’t like the gleam in his eyes. She didn’t think he’d give her any more of a chance to talk when they’d finished here. In fact, she could envisage him quietening her words with another of those devastating kisses. She had her ethics, but how could she hope to win against that?

  But in a way he was right. Hopefully Bonnie was down for good, but bedtime and babies wasn’t a science. And this omelet did smell and look divine. A growl from her stomach decided for her.

  A few minutes later, halfway finished, she said, “This is really very good.”

  “I don’t cook much. Back home I usually don’t get out of the office until late. If we don’t get food delivered and I don’t have a dinner engagement, I pop into a great steak place a couple of blocks away.”

  “I’m amazed you don’t have a bevy of women lining up to cook for you.”

  He sent her a knowing glance before collecting his wine goblet. “My brothers are the domesticated ones, remember.”

  She feigned an enlightened look. “How did I forget?”

  They both knew women lined up to do a whole lot more than flip Zack’s steak. Although…

  “The way you were getting along with Bonnie this afternoon, anyone might be fooled into thinking you’re a regular family man.”

  That he might actually enjoy having his own wife and child around. Which was crazy. Zack was a bachelor businessman, pure and simple.

  Although hadn’t she had a change of heart since caring for Bonnie? Yesterday a seed had been replanted, and now she couldn’t deny feeding into the fantasy of having a child of her own. Having a husband, a family…

  Oh, but she was getting all muddled when, tonight like never before, she needed to keep everything straight.

  Zack’s brows dipped before he drained the wine from his glass and made a sound of deep satisfaction in his throat. “This really is an exceptional year.”

  Having tasted the wine, she had to agree. But no matter how enjoyable, she didn’t intend to indulge beyond one glass tonight. After that incredible kiss in the snow, he’d told her exactly how he felt. He wanted to make love to her. Sitting across from Zack now, looking so casual yet dynamic, if she was a weaker woman, she might easily fling her napkin to one side and suggest they cut dinner short.

  But as much as she’d enjoyed the day and having the opportunity to see this other more human side of Zack, those other darker considerations kept weighing on her mind. She’d known he liked women, that he was beyond ruthless in business, but to discover via Kate this morning that he’d used another man’s sorrow to move closer to a contract’s finish line? It set her teeth on edge.

  She was attracted to Zack in a way she hadn’t known existed but she couldn’t live with herself if she put physical need before her conscience. Not that iron man Zack would understand that.

  When his cell lying on the counter buzzed, Zack went to check the message. Without replying to the text, he returned to the table and drew his chair in.

  He took a long pull from his glass and explained, “Dirkins wants to see me tomorrow.”

  Trinity sat straighter. “Do you think he’s ready to meet your offer?”

  Had he succeeded in wearing the poor man down?

  Zack collected his fork again. “Yes, I think he’s ready to sign.”

  “Guess you finally got to him.”

  He studied her then shrugged. “I’m sorry. You’ve lost me.”

  Should she tell him what she knew or should she accept that she could do nothing to change the way Zack approached life and let it slide? The only rule in his world was “there are no rules.” Even when it came to an anguished father’s emotions. A broken man who’d been knocked down twice—once by the death of his son and again when Zack had insinuated he was in some way to blame.

  Trinity shifted her plate away. Right or wrong, she needed to know. “How did James Dirkins’s son die?”

  “Car accident.” Zack patted his mouth with his napkin and thoughtfully set it back down on his lap. “Some say it was suicide. Apparently he’d been troubled of late.”

  “Apparently? So you did some research?”

  His gaze sharpened. “Where’s this going?”

  She couldn’t keep quiet. She had to ask, and if Zack didn’t want to admit that he’d played on this man’s feelings to gain an upper hand, she wouldn’t be surprised. Men like Zack rarely took responsibility. They only plundered the rewards. Or that’s the way the media depicted him.

  But the man she’d come to know a little came across as more complex than that, and certainly capable of compassion. Being part of his pantomime for Bonnie and those games when they’d fooled around in the snow… Could that story about Zack putting those kinds of emotional screws into Dirkins really be true?

  “When I spoke to Kate this morning,” Trinity began, “she said you’d let Dirkins know you believed he was somehow responsible for his son’s death.”

  Zack’s brow furrowed and his gaze darkened until the irises appeared black. His voice was low and grating. “She said what?”

  Her cheeks flushing, Trinity pushed back her chair. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “‘You’ being Trinity Matthews or the so-called free press?” He swore and dropped his fork on his plate before he met her gaze again. “Usually it doesn’t bother me, living in a society where everyone is consumed by what the other half wear and eat and say. It’s a circus. Three parts illusion and the other part bullshit.”

  Trinity’s heartbeat was crashing high in her chest. She hadn’t expected this reaction. Was this some kind of show to get her on his side? Gain her sympathy? Or was he better than the press made out? Than even Zack might sometimes give himself credit for?

  “Are you saying you didn’t suggest to James Dirkins that he as good as killed his own son?” she asked.

  “Does it matter what I say? You people print what sells.” His lip curled. “And you think I should be ashamed of myself.”

  His expression, his tone, the conviction of his words…

  She gave a hapless shrug and muttered, “I didn’t say it was true.”

  He looked at her hard then huffed like he was tired of it all. His plate in hand, he moved to the kitchen.

  She glared at her own plate then came up with an idea that might work for everyone.

  “Even if Dirkins can’t manage it on his own anymore, he must be torn. It’d feel like he was saying goodbye to his son again. Maybe there’s some other option where he can still be a part of the hotel without having to take all the responsibility. What if you offered him a partnership?”

  His dish rattled into the sink. “I don’t do partnerships.”

  Her lips and stomach tightened. “Of course you don’t.” How could she forget? His brothers believed in partnerships, not Zack.

  He moved back to the table. “I’m not a bad guy. I go out of my way to be fair in business, to be a good son and uncle.” He reached, found her hand and pulled her to her feet. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m also a man who has normal desires and needs.”

  She caught her breath but, defiant, challenged his gaze. “I’d noticed.”

  “Tomorrow
the authorities will come and take that baby away. Hopefully they’ll find her parents but either way our involvement will end.” His fingers brushed down her forearm, gripped her hand. “That doesn’t mean we have to stop seeing each other.”

  The world tilted beneath her feet. Everything was suddenly way out of balance.

  “You want to see me again?”

  He brought her close. “What do you think?”

  His mouth dropped over hers and her body flashed with an energy that had been building all day, that had bubbled on the brink of boiling over since she’d put the baby down. Now the fuel racing through her blood rushed to her core, making her feel heavy and hot and desperate for him to make good on the promise he’d made today. The promise about making love.

  His hand cupped her cheek, directing the slant of her head while he worked a kiss that left her floating inches off the floor. The sensations and emotions were so powerful she wanted to thread her arms around his neck and forget about what was wrong or right, or smart or pathetically stupid. She was smoldering, unable to pretend she could walk away before experiencing more. And wasn’t that only human? Why shouldn’t she have this night? There was nothing stopping them except her pride. If this was a mistake, she’d need to live with it, like everything else.

  She’d all but surrendered, fanning her palms up over Zack’s hard cashmere-covered chest, when his caress changed in tempo and in tone. His kiss was still expert and breathtakingly thorough but in her heart she was aware he knew he’d won. And as his hand moved higher and his fingers splayed up through her hair, she was at a loss to do anything other than sigh in surrender and dissolve that much more. The hard length of his body seemed to combine so seamlessly with hers, she couldn’t think where he finished and she began.

  With his mouth still on hers, he swept her up into his arms. A moment later, she was vaguely aware of passing by Cruiser. Before he started up the stairs, his chest expanded on a breath and he reluctantly dragged his mouth from hers. As he peered down through lidded eyes, feeling the hammer of his heartbeat pumping through her own blood, she fought to get her breath.

  “I can walk up myself,” she offered, “if I’m too heavy.”

  The white of his teeth shone in the shadows as he flashed a smile. “I’ll manage.”

  He carried her up to the second floor while Trinity’s pulse throbbed and her grasp of reality seemed to fall away. As he crossed to the center of a room draped in quiet shadows, she recalled her first impression of him in the cab, how his presence had dominated and his deep voice had more than intrigued. Later she’d thought how attractive his lips were, particularly the fuller lower one. She’d wondered how their bows would feel grazing over hers, never dreaming for a moment she’d find out.

  Now as he stopped before the foot of a king-size bed, the need to know Zack Harrison intimately and all night was so powerful, she positively ached with it. After vowing never to succumb, at this high-octane moment she was leagues beyond ready.

  First moving to elbow on a corner light, he then angled to flick back the covers before laying her gently on the bed. One knee on the mattress, the other foot on the floor, he sculpted a slow teasing hand over her shoulder while running a band of barely there kisses over every erogenous point from her brow to the sweater’s V at her breasts.

  But in a corner of her mind an image of the baby, alone in that bedroom downstairs, sneaked in and, dragging herself from the headiness, Trinity sat up.

  “What if Bonnie wakes and we don’t hear?”

  His focus shifted to lifting the sweater up over her hips, her waist.

  “I can attest to the fact,” he said, “that she’ll only have to squeak before Cruiser bounds up here to let us know.”

  Her arms came up, the sweater came off and his heavenly mouth came down again, this time to taste a bone-melting trail along the sweep of one shoulder at the same time he snapped the clasp at her back. As the bra fell, those tantalizingly mouth-on-skin drops angled lower until he was lightly sucking the tip of one breast and she was going out of her mind. When the stiff tip of his tongue twirled a slow wet circle then flicked a few mind-blowing times, the buildup of sensations overflowed their dam.

  While his palms on her bare back pressed her closer, she let her neck roll to one side and plied her fingers through his hair. When his head came away and cool air hit hot flesh, he urged her back down onto the sheet before drawing that other nipple deeply into his mouth.

  Her mind floating and body humming, she soaked up the pleasure and waited. She imagined his tongue soon trailing lower as his slightly roughed fingertips grazed over tender peaks, rolling and gently pinching the tips. Instead his mouth drew completely away a moment before the furnace of his body left her, too. Bringing her arms up around to circle her head, she frowned and forced open her eyes.

  He stood at the side of the bed, catching the back of his sweater then dragging the wool forward over his head before dropping it at his feet. With his hair mussed and his magnificent body backlit, a silver halo shone out from around his broad shoulders’ expanse. So muscular and bronzed, she couldn’t take her eyes off the extraordinary figure he cut.

  He flicked open the button on his jeans, eased the zipper down and when he pushed on the hips, the denim rustled to the floor. In the shadows, she could make out the line of dark hair that arrowed from his navel to black briefs that were having a hard time keeping his erection penned in.

  When he came to her, the light changed and every working muscle was cast in a mesmerizing show of rippling relief. He stopped to hover mere inches above her. Adoring his musky scent, she filled her lungs and threaded her arms around his neck.

  “I’ve thought about this moment,” he said, “from the second you slipped into my cab.”

  “From the very first second?” she teased.

  He grazed his beard over her cheek. “Hmm…maybe before.”

  She drove her hands up over the muscled contours of his shoulders, relishing the anticipation, and whispered close to his ear.

  “Then we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

  His hand trailed up her leg then detoured to find that most sensitive part of her. While he dropped soft, slow kisses down her neck, across her shoulder, two fingertips trailed up her center then settled into circling that swollen burning bead.

  Everything but sensation dropped away. She was only aware of the slow, delicious flame that she never wanted to go out as his circling touch slowed to an agonizing pace that felt so incredible, she had to bite her lip and hold onto his arm to stop from grinding against him. But then he shifted, and she was left trembling on the edge.

  Next thing she knew, he was easing inside her, his mouth covered hers and his hand found its way between them again. Trinity snatched back a breath as a bolt of heat ripped through her core. She was so close, she could see the orgasm in her mind, calling her nearer…hotter…higher.

  When the friction between them reached fever pitch, he thrust in a final time and her world imploded with wave after wave of incomparable pleasure. She rode a roll of continuous peaks, murmuring his name, clinging to his heat, thanking fate.

  And cursing it, too.

  Eight

  “I’m glad you talked me into that.”

  Agreeing wholeheartedly, Zack flipped Trinity over and on top of him then wove his palms over the satiny plane of her back, down over the smooth rise of her behind.

  “You really didn’t need much persuading.”

  “Must be the isolation.”

  He grinned. “Cabin fever?”

  “I’m still a little restless.”

  His hands curved in and went deeper. “Good, because I’m nowhere near finished with my remedy.”

  Her smile slid over to capture his mouth. It seemed they hadn’t stopped kissing and yet he couldn’t imagine ever growing tired of the way her tongue danced with his—sometimes darting and hungry. At other times, like now, sensual, weaving…coaxing blood to rush to places that were more than rea
dy for Act II. He’d never felt so satisfied and yet so ready for more.

  He was repositioning her hips over his, seriously considering grabbing another condom and taking this joining to the next heart-pumping level, when a little of her kiss’s enthusiasm seemed to wane. Zack craned his neck, deepened the kiss but gradually her lips left his. In the misty light, he frowned up as she peered with a guilty look glistening in those beautiful thickly lashed eyes.

  “Are you tired?” he asked.

  “A little uneasy.”

  Grinning, he swept her over until he was the one on top. “I know how to fix uneasy.”

  He lowered his mouth to her throat and began to work his way inch by delectable inch down. But rather than feel her sink into the mattress and melt beneath him, she held back. Stiffened. His head came up and he frowned.

  “Am I losing my flair?”

  She caught him under the arms and he let her drag him up. She looked so concerned, his chest squeezed. Whatever her worry was, he wanted to kiss it all away.

  “Would it be silly,” she asked, “to move back downstairs?”

  “You want to be nearer the baby?”

  “I know Cruiser’s there on watch,” she went on. “I know she probably won’t wake until morning.” She fingered a lock of hair away from his eyes. “Just somehow I’d feel better.”

  He thought it through and nodded. “Me, too.”

  Her face split with a smile. “Really?”

  “On one condition. We stay warm only through body heat and the fire. As sexy as I find them, I don’t want a hint of red silk pj’s coming between us tonight.”

  She snatched a happy kiss and stayed close to rub the tip of his nose with hers. “Deal.”

  While she visited the bathroom, he found two oversize robes from his walk-in closet and slipped a couple of extra condoms in the largest robe’s pocket. A moment later, they were “dressed” and stepping over Cruiser to pop their heads inside that downstairs bedroom.

  A sidelight cast a soft glow over the room. Bonnie was sound asleep, her arms at right angles along either side of her head. Cruiser appeared to be off in doggy slumberland, too, although Zack wondered whether he was playing possum in case, for some reason, they tried to get him to move.