“Oh my. ‘Lady in red is dancing with me cheek to cheek!’ There are no words to describe the level of sexy that dress has skyrocketed you to.” Martin’s hands mimed an imaginary hourglass as he continued. “Every curve, every line, every inch is perfection. You are a walking, breathing piece of art.”
“So, thumbs up?” Jessie teased, sticking up both her thumbs.
“Oh, honey, you are going to get a lot more than thumbs going up in that thing,” Martin said with conviction.
I hope so, Jessie thought as she mentally crossed her fingers.
She knew that Zach was going to be coming to the Christmas party, since he was a client of SPC now that Maxi had come on board. It had been a week since he surprised her with the Christmas tree. A week since she’d thrown herself into his arms and declared her love for his gift. A week since he patted her back like one of her cousins would have and moved away from her and started unwrapping the ornaments.
That night, they stayed up until three a.m. decorating the tree. They talked and laughed. Zach had built a fire in the fireplace and put Christmas music on to “set the mood.” It had been one of the most fun ‘PG’ nights of her life. Since that night, she hadn’t been avoiding Zach at all or vice versa. They shared meals together, cleaned the house, and even watched a couple of movies, but that was it. No flirtation, no long looks, no…sparks flying like she was steel and he was a welder.
Somewhere between Thanksgiving and the Christmas tree surprise, things between them had changed, at least on his side of things. Which Jessie should be happy about. It should make her relieved. This new relationship dynamic was exactly what she’d been saying she wanted. As it turned out, she wasn’t happy about it at all and it wasn’t what she wanted.
She wanted the spark back. She wanted to feel him looking at her when she wasn’t looking at him. She wanted the energy between them to feel electrified with arousal. She wanted to feel like, at any moment, they would be tearing each other’s clothes off. That feeling was addictive, and Jessie felt like an addict that hadn’t had a fix. She guessed the saying was true—you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
It wasn’t gone completely, because the few times they touched each other in accidental brushes, she’d seen the flames of desire spark in his seductive, green eyes. She felt the heated waves of tension rolling off his body before he quickly moved away and squelched them with an invisible wet rag.
“All right, now sit that sexy ass down and let Martin work his magic.” Martin waved his fingers as he moved away from her desk, revealing that he’d turned it into a vanity table. There was a large mirror sitting at its edge with makeup, perfume, a blow dryer, a curling iron, and other various hair products covering the entire surface.
“If you do something, you go all out, I love that about you.” Jessie smiled in amusement as she took her seat at the “Martin Salon.”
“So are we wearing this dress for anyone in particular tonight?” Martin asked as ran a large barrel brush through her hair and began blowing it out.
“No,” Jessie lied.
“Ooookay. On a totally unrelated topic, I’m very excited to meet Mr. Sexy Playboy Boxing Man tonight.” Martin winked at her as he continued ‘working his magic.’
Jessie honestly didn’t care if her assistant knew why she was wearing this dress. When Martin had showed her the dress, she immediately formed a plan. Tonight, she would find out if Zach was keeping his distance because he was focusing on his upcoming fight. Which, if that was the case, Jessie would obviously respect. But she would still put her offer on the table for after the fight. If he’d been keeping his distance because he was no longer interested in a physical relationship with her, she would of course respect that as well. The difference was that if that was the case, she would definitely not be putting her offer on the table. Her ego might get a little bruised, but it was nothing she couldn’t recover from.
His reaction to seeing her in this dress was going to be the determining factor of whether or not she executed her plan. If he saw her and looked at her with appreciation but not the that-dress-looks-amazing-but-it-would-look-better-on-the-floor reaction she was hoping for, then she would not broach the subject at all. But, if he looked like he wanted to rip the dress off of her with his teeth, then when they arrived back at the brownstone, she and Mr. Sexy Playboy Boxing Man, as Martin had grown so fond of calling him, would be having a little talk.
She planned to offer him something that she knew most red-blooded men would jump at—a no-strings-attached, roommates-with-benefits arrangement while they shared the same roof. The only thing that gave her a moment’s pause of concern over her plan and the offer was the fact that Zach Courtland was not a normal red-blooded man. He was Superman.
* * *
“I can’t believe you’re wearing a tie,” Billy said as they stepped onto the elevator from the underground parking garage. His friend’s face looked like he’d just seen Santa Claus kissing Mommy underneath the mistletoe. He was in utter disbelief.
“I do know how to clean up when I want to.” Zach tried not to be offended at Billy’s reaction. It made total sense. In all the years Zach had known Billy, he couldn’t remember ever wearing a tie around him. Not even to benefits or awards shows.
Now that he thought about it, the last time he’d worn a tie was to his grandparents’ funeral. Tonight, he was wearing one to the SPC Christmas party. Zach tried not to read too much into the significance of that.
Over the past week, he’d been doing exactly what he’d promised himself he would do; he remained in the self-imposed friend-zone with Jessie. It had almost killed him. There were several times that he thought he might burst a blood vessel from pent-up sexual frustration or crack one of his teeth from his jaw locking so tight that he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to eat properly again. One interesting development was that he was pretty sure that he’d noticed a bluish tint to his sac last night before he’d gotten in the shower, so at least he now knew how “blue balls” had gotten its name.
Billy looked Zach up and down, narrowing his eyes in an assessing gaze.
“What?” Sometimes Zach wished that he and Billy fought in the same weight class because then he’d be able to kick his ass without ruining their friendship.
Crossing his arms, Billy widened his stance and tilted his head. “I’m just trying to figure out if the tie means you hit it and are officially whipped or if it means that you haven’t hit it yet and are trying a little too hard.”
Both.
Zach was whipped and he was trying too hard.
The doors opened, and Billy and Zach were immediately greeted by a cocktail waitress who offered them a choice of wine or beer. Billy chose a beer and Zach declined. His fight was in three weeks. He always went dry a month before fights.
“If you need anything else, my name is Kendra.” The hot blonde’s mouth turned up in a private smile as her fingers trailed down his arm.
Smiling politely, Zach nodded and moved away.
He wasn’t trying to be rude, but Zach knew exactly what the voluptuous waitress was offering. There were two reasons she was barking up the wrong tree. First, he didn’t hook up before a fight. Second, even if he did, the only woman he wanted was Jessie. Since that fateful day six weeks ago, when he’d opened that basement door, every other girl he’d seen just looked like a cheap imitation of the real thing.
His time on Platonic Island had showed him that Jessie was smart, funny, obviously drop-dead gorgeous and she was also really interesting. Her mind didn’t work like other people’s did. It wasn’t even that she thought outside the box, so much, as she didn’t even see the box. He was sure that her creative thinking was one of the things that made her so good at her job.
Every time Maxi stopped by the gym to see her dad, she had more I-can’t-believe-how-amazing-Jessie-is stories to tell. Maxi said that Jessie inspired her and made her want to be better.
Zach totally understood where she was coming from. Th
at was exactly how he felt when he spent time around her. He was glad that someone other than himself saw that side of Jessie. He really didn’t think that her family did—not for lack of trying—but because Jessie was so closed off with them. Zach still didn’t totally understand her reasoning for that, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He just felt so damn lucky that she’d opened up to him.
After Billy got not one but two beers, the two men began making their way through the crowd of people. The party was being held at the SPC offices, which were very modern and chic. All of the furniture was white, there were exposed pipes in the ceiling, and the walls were painted red, black, or gray.
The place was packed. There had to be at least a couple hundred people there. A DJ was spinning in the far right corner, and servers in black tie were circulating throughout the space with beverages and appetizers. A few women had tried to get Zach, Billy, or both their attention as they weaved their way through.
It surprised Zach that Billy hadn’t seemed the least bit interested in any of the female flirtations that were coming their way. That was very unlike his friend. He was just about to ask him if he was feeling okay when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“I’m so glad you guys made it. I wasn’t sure you’d really come.”
Turning, he saw Maxi smiling from ear to ear. She wore a white cocktail dress and red heels, and her long, dark hair fell loosely around her shoulders. She looked stunning.
“Yep. We made it. You look beautiful, Maxi,” Zach told her as he leaned down to give her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Me? What about you?! You’re wearing a tie.” Maxine looked just as shocked as Billy had.
Zach just shrugged, not wanting to dwell on that fact.
Realizing he hadn’t heard anything from Big Mouth Billy, he turned and recognized the expression on his friend’s face. It looked exactly like the way Zach felt every time he saw Jessie.
“You look…” Billy stammered a little before he let out a sigh. “Damn.”
“Thanks…I think.” Maxi’s brow knitted as she looked at Billy strangely. Then she shook her head a little, her face lighting up as she turned to Zach. “Have you seen Jessie tonight?”
“No. We just got here,” Zach explained.
Maxi clapped her hands together and her eyes widened. “You have to see her. Follow me.” With that brisk instruction, Maxi pivoted on her heels and began pushing her way through the crowd.
Zach started to follow her but looked back to make sure that Billy was okay. He wasn’t going to leave a man behind. “You all right?”
Billy looked up at Zach like he wasn’t really sure how to answer that. “I mean…damn.”
“If boxing doesn’t work out, you should try to get a job at Hallmark,” Zach teased. “Come on. ‘Damn’ wants us to follow her.”
Billy rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head back and forth like a wet dog trying to dry off. Zach laughed as he and Billy caught up with Maxi.
His laugh was cut short when the crowds parted and he saw Jessie. Zach had seen movies and heard stories where a guy or girl sees someone and the rest of the room disappears. Before now, he figured that people who said that had happened to them were full of shit. Now, he knew they weren’t.
As Zach looked at Jessie, who was wearing a red dress that made him want to tear it off her body and take her up against the wall, no one else in the room—or even on the planet—existed. Just Jessie. Only him and Jessie.
“Zach?”
He heard Maxi’s voice, but it sounded like he was underwater. It was distorted and muffled.
“I’m glad you both could make it.” Jessie might have been referring to both him and Billy, but her eyes were glued to his.
“Hi,” he said. No, it wasn’t the smoothest line he’d ever come up with. It wasn’t a line at all.
But it must have worked, because a color that matched her dress appeared on her smooth cheeks as she dipped her head slightly. “Hi,” Jessie breathed.
Her voice instantly reminded him of how she sounded when he was getting her splinter out. His eyes were locked on hers. A nuclear bomb could go off beside him and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t notice.
“Helloooo, Mr. Sexy Playboy Boxing Man.” A tall, good-looking, well-dressed guy (Zach was pretty sure swung for the other team) stepped beside Jessie and extended his hand to Zach.
“Martin, this is Zach Courtland, our client,” Jessie emphasized then turned to Zach. “Zach, this is my assistant Martin.”
“Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of great things about you,” Zach smiled as he shook the man’s hand.
Jessie had told him more than once that she didn’t think she would have gotten through the last few months, since being promoted, without Martin. She even used the word irreplaceable.
“From who?” Martin looked confused, and Zach couldn’t tell if he was kidding or he really didn’t know.
“From Jessie.” Zach would have thought that was obvious.
“Wait a minute. Hold the phone. She talks and it’s about me?” Martin gushed. “What does she say? I have to know everything!”
Jessie’s head fell back as she laughed and shook her head.
“Can I have your attention?” a man Zach didn’t recognize but who introduced himself as Scott Snyder, president and CEO of SPC, said over a microphone.
Jessie gave Zach a little wave as she, Martin, and Maxine headed to the small stage Scott was standing on. The man talked about the great year they’d had and then introduced the newest member of their executive team, Jessie Sloan. He called her and her department on stage.
As Zach watched her give a little speech, he was mesmerized by not just her beauty, but also her poise. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten so lucky to have had her walk into his life, but he knew one thing: he would do whatever he had to do to make sure she didn’t walk out.
Chapter Twenty-One
The elevator doors opened, and Zach made his way through the empty hallways of the SPC executive floor, following the directions that Martin had given him. The party downstairs was winding down, and when he looked to find Jessie to say goodbye to her, her assistant had informed him that Jessie had gone up to her office to check on an email she’d been waiting for from a client. According to Martin, she was only supposed to be gone “a few minutes” but had been MIA for almost an hour.
After making a left at the end of the hall as instructed, Zach easily found the large wooden double doors with a plaque beside them that read ‘Jessie Sloan VP of Public Relations.’ One of the doors was opened a crack, and he knocked as he stepped in.
“Jessie?”
For a moment, he didn’t see anyone. Turning his head to the side he saw what looked like a small bathroom, but it appeared empty. On his second scan of the room, his heart slammed in his chest when he saw blond hair splayed out across the large mahogany desk.
“Jessie!” Zach cried out as he ran across the room to her, his chest tight with panic. He heard the heavy office door slam shut behind him. He repeated her name even louder, “Jessie!”
Just as he made it to her side, she stirred. Her head moved from side to side a little. Lifting up, she looked up at him in sleepy confusion, her hair stuck to the side of her face.
“Oh thank God.” He exhaled loudly as he tried to calm his racing heart. Fear still gripped his chest as adrenaline raced through his veins.
“Are you okay?” Jessie’s voice was filled with concern although still not sounding fully awake yet. As she reached up and brushed the strands of hair off her cheek she asked, “What’s wrong?”
Her large doe-eyes were blinking up at him as she pushed off the desk to stand. Before she made it out of the chair, Zach pulled her into his arms and crushed her against him, her soft curves molded into his body.
“Zach?” She was definitely sounding more alert now and also more acutely worried.
“I thought something happened to you. I thought… I just
thought…” He couldn’t continue his thought as he held her tightly in his arms.
Zach didn’t know how to tell her that when he’d seen her slumped over the desk, his mind and his emotions had gone right back to when he was fourteen and had come home to find his mom slumped over the kitchen table. He tried to wake her up. He called her name and shaken her before calling 911. Then he held her unconscious body in his arms until the paramedics came and took her away.
That was the day that his childhood ended. That was the day he knew at any second his mom could be gone. That was the day he stopped thinking about the future.
“I’m okay,” Jessie softly assured him as she rubbed her hands up and down his back. “I’m here, Zach. I’m okay. I just fell asleep. I’m fine. Everything’s okay.”
Zach nodded against the top of her head, breathing in the fresh scent of her hair. Logically, he knew she was okay. But somewhere between his brain and his chest, the message was getting lost. Zach’s heart pounded erratically as he tightened his grip around her.
Jessie wriggled her body, snuggling closer to him, burying her face in his throat. He closed his eyes so he could solely concentrate on feeling her. Her warm breath against his neck. Her hands as they rubbed up and down his back. Her soft breasts crushed against his chest.
Need, like he’d never experienced before, flooded through him like raging rapids. Holding her was not enough. He needed to touch her, skin to skin. He needed to feel her heart beating beneath his hands. He needed to feel how alive she was while he was deep inside of her.
His fingers spread out on the smooth soft skin at the base of her spine. Moving his hands up and down the sleek line of her back, fierce arousal ignited inside of him. Zach’s pulse raced, but it was no longer out of fear.
“Jessie.” He barely recognized his own voice. It sounded tortured even to his own ears.
“I’m here,” came her sweet voice as she tilted her head up.
The moment her eyes met his, her expression turned from concern to awareness. Intensity flared between them. Her lips parted, and her chest rose and fell in heavy breaths. Lifting her arms, she wrapped them around his neck. Her fingers combed through the hair at the base of his neck. Her gentle touch was almost unbearable in tenderness.
Actually Love - Jessie & Zach (The Crossroads Series) Page 21