‘Yes, well, the thing is, Peter bought his new wife the real thing,’ Holly said. ‘She came into the shop soon after they announced their engagement and brandished it under my nose. And she made sure I could see she was pregnant when she came in recently. She’s having twins this summer.’
He slipped his arm around her waist and drew her closer. ‘I’m sorry you’ve had such jerks mess you around. I can see why you’ve been so reluctant to put yourself out there again.’
But she had put herself out there again, hadn’t she? She was walking arm in arm with the hottest guy in London and she was wearing his gorgeous ring. Holly knew if she wasn’t careful she could be in real danger of not just bruising her heart this time but having it break into a thousand confetti-like pieces.
CHAPTER FIVE
A SHORT TIME LATER, Zack sat opposite Holly at a table in the restaurant he’d chosen. He couldn’t stop his gaze from drifting to her slender hand where his ‘engagement’ ring was winking at him. Sure, it was a lot of money for a ring that wasn’t going to be used in the real sense, but he was adamant Holly wouldn’t feel used or cheapened in any way by their temporary relationship. Their engagement charade was supposed to be a win-win and he didn’t want her to feel exploited in any way.
But it was kind of weird how right it had felt to slip that ring on her finger. Not just how nice it looked on her hand and how it was a perfect fit, but how...right it felt. He couldn’t imagine ever putting a ring on anyone else’s hand. Before now he’d never wanted to. But the ring wasn’t staying on her hand any longer than a few weeks, tops. He was happy to play the role of Mr Right Now but Mr Right For Ever...?
Forget about it.
Holly glanced at her ring and her teeth began to chew at her lower lip. Zack placed his hand on top of hers. ‘Hey. Enough about the ring, okay?’ he said, softening it with a smile. ‘It’s the only one I’m ever going to buy someone, so indulge me.’
She was still frowning. ‘But what if you were to fall in love one day? You might change your mind about marrying and having a family.’
Zack withdrew his hand and picked up his wine glass instead. The thought of falling in love privately terrified him. He wasn’t emotionally cold by any means. He felt—and felt deeply—but he was careful, guarded with how he handled romantic relationships. Wary of allowing himself to get so attached to someone he couldn’t imagine life without them. He’d seen too much with his dad. Destroyed by his love for a woman who wasn’t capable of loving him back. He too had felt the pain of being abandoned by the one person who should have loved him more than life itself. But his mother had left—and left gladly. Never coming back for him. He had stood at the window every time a car came down the driveway, hoping, praying it was his mother coming back.
But his hopes and prayers had been in vain. It had made him distrustful of love. It seemed to him to be an unreliable emotion, a fickle feeling that could change in a blink.
No. His heart was fine the way it was. Protected. Secure. Safe.
‘What about you?’ Zack asked. ‘Don’t all young women want to fall in love and get married and have babies one day?’
Holly let out a blustery sigh. ‘I used to want that more than anything but I can’t bear the thought of being publicly humiliated again.’
‘You might be luckier the next time around.’
Her smile wasn’t quite a smile. ‘Nope. I told you before—I’m done with the fairy tale. And as for kids—I’ll settle with being a devoted aunty to my future nephews and nieces.’
Zack had met plenty of commitment cynics in his time, but Holly’s cynicism seemed rather sad to him. Tragic even. It was far easier for him to build a satisfying life without the ties of a family. But he thought most women longed for a family, didn’t they? He could imagine her surrounded by a brood of rosy-cheeked children, showering them with the warm nurturing affection he had missed out on as a child. ‘You might change your mind one day.’
Her eyes met his in a pert challenge. ‘So might you.’
He laughed but even to his ears it sounded a little forced. No way was he going to end up like his dad, left holding the baby. Or a ten-year-old kid. He often wondered if that was why his father had struggled so much to cope, because he hadn’t expected to parent a child on his own. ‘I’ve spent my entire adult life making sure I don’t get anyone pregnant. I can’t see that changing any time soon, if ever.’
‘You don’t like kids?’
‘I love kids. It’s what happens to them when parents get divorced that worries me.’
‘You might not get divorced,’ she said, picking up her wine glass. ‘You might be one of the lucky ones.’
‘Everyone thinks they’ll be one of the lucky ones when they first start out,’ Zack said. ‘But a successful relationship is not up to one person—it’s up to two. I saw that with my parents. Dad was doing all he could to be a supportive and loving husband and it still wasn’t enough. My mother found someone more interesting.’
‘She had an affair?’
‘One of several,’ Zack said. ‘It devastated my dad. He forgave her the first couple of times she strayed, but then she ran off with the local vicar in the village. It created an enormous scandal people still talk about to this day.’ It felt strange to be talking so openly about something still so painful to even think about, much less talk about with someone he’d only met a week ago. But somehow with Holly it was different. It felt natural to be telling her about his past.
Natural and safe.
‘I can’t imagine how difficult and painful that must have been for you as a young boy,’ Holly said. ‘And for your dad. I’ve been lucky with my parents. They’re still in love with each other after thirty-three years of marriage.’
‘Good to know the fairy tale still happens occasionally.’
Holly’s expression looked wistful. ‘Yes...’
He raised his glass in a toast. ‘To us. The non-fairy-tale pursuers.’
She clinked her glass against his. ‘To the non-fairy-tale pursuers.’
* * *
It was late by the time Zack drove Holly back to her flat that evening. She hadn’t wanted the evening to end. The food had been delicious but it was his company that had made the evening so enjoyable. He was funny and charming but when he’d shared some of the pain of his lonely childhood she’d realised behind his laugh-a-minute manner he was a deeply sensitive and caring man. Perhaps, at times, even a lonely man. The way he worried about his father, even pretending to be engaged in order to make his dad feel less guilty, demonstrated that. She felt more and more annoyed at herself for not believing him the other night at the theatre. She had allowed her jaundiced view of men to blind her to the truth.
Holly unlocked the door of her flat and turned to face Zack. ‘Would you like to come in for a nightcap?’
His eyes dipped to her mouth, a flicker of something passing over his features. ‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea tonight.’
Why? A stab of disappointment pierced Holly’s self-esteem. She was so certain he was going to ask to come in and kiss her. Maybe even do more than kiss her. Had she somehow misread the crackling chemistry between them? Made more of their evening than he had? It was a little terrifying to realise how much she wanted him to come in. How much she wanted him to press her back against the nearest wall and kiss her senseless. ‘Okay. Maybe some other time...’ She tried to keep her voice light and carefree but even she could hear the jangling chord of uncertainty.
‘Holly.’ His deep and rough tone brought her gaze back up to his. His eyes were as dark as a midnight sky with glints of lust sprinkled like stars. ‘You know what will happen if I come inside.’
Holly licked her lips and tried to slow her suddenly racing pulse. ‘I would make coffee or fix you a port or...or something.’
His lifted his hand to her face and brushed the backs of his bent knuckles agai
nst her heated cheek. Every pore of her skin shuddered, his touch causing an earthquake beneath her epidermis. ‘It’s the “or something” that’s keeping me on this side of the door.’
Holly wasn’t sure if they were talking about nightcaps or something else. But why shouldn’t it be about something else? The something else she wanted like she had never wanted before. She could feel it building in her body even now. The pulse of longing thrumming in her blood, the low deep ache in her core that intensified whenever he looked at her with his simmering I-want-you gaze.
But begging him to make love to her was not something she was comfortable doing. He was used to women elbowing each other out of the way to get to him. She was not going to do the same. If he was having second thoughts about getting too close to her, then so be it. He wasn’t the only one who had self-control, not to mention self-respect. Holly gave a disingenuous laugh and pointed her finger between herself and him. ‘Oh, I get it. You thought I wanted you to come in and sleep with me? Sorry, but I’m not that kind of girl.’ Or I wasn’t until I met you.
His mouth tilted in a smile so knowing she might as well have been standing there naked with a sign on her saying, Take Me, I’m Yours. ‘I’ll give you a call in a couple of days. Ciao.’
Holly listened to the sound of his footsteps as he left and pushed down her disappointment like someone trying to stuff a pillow into a matchbox. Damn him for making her want him so much. Damn him for having such sensual power over her. Damn him for being the most irresistible man she had ever met. She would have to be careful how she handled him in future. She couldn’t allow him to mess with her head.
Or worse—her heart.
A couple of days later, Zack leaned back in his office chair and fiddled with his pen, his gaze wandering to the view outside. The intermittent rain and occasional bursts of watery sunlight were a reminder of how much he was looking forward to a week in Paris for a law conference next week. In the past, he would have seen a conference as an opportunity to hook up with someone for a causal no-strings fling.
But now he only wanted Holly.
What if he asked her to go with him to Paris? If she said yes, it would be another way to assure his dad that his playboy days were behind him. He smiled in anticipation. Another win-win.
She filled his every waking thought and a large proportion of his sleeping ones too. He dreamed of her lying in the bed next to him. Last night he had even reached for her and the jolt of disappointment when he’d found his bed empty had stunned him into a long period of wakefulness. He couldn’t remember a time when a woman had had such a potent effect on him. He was like a teenage boy experiencing his first infatuation.
He knew they could have slept together the other night but he wanted to take his time. He was enjoying the flirtation too much. He didn’t want his relationship with her to be like all his other relationships. He wasn’t exactly sure why... Or was it because it wasn’t just his father he wanted to convince he was more than a date-them-and-dump-them playboy?
Zack picked up his phone and dialled Holly’s number.
She answered on the seventh ring. ‘Hi, Zack.’
‘Missed me?’
‘Not a bit.’
He gave a low and deep chuckle at the haughtiness of her tone. ‘I want to see you tonight.’
‘I might not be free.’
He swivelled back and forth on his chair, enjoying the sound of her voice. Enjoying the tussle between her strong will and his. Enjoying the challenge of winning her over, as he knew he eventually would. ‘I’ll pick you up at seven.’
‘Do you live in a big house?’
‘Yes, why?’
‘I suppose you need all that extra space to house your overblown ego.’
Zack smiled to himself. She was so darn cute when she spoke in that schoolmistress tone. ‘You should check it out sometime.’
‘Your house or your ego?’
He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his desk, the phone still cradled against his ear. ‘Since we’re engaged, people will wonder why you’re not living with me.’
He heard the swift intake of her breath as if his statement had shocked her. ‘I’m not moving in with you, so you can get that idea out of your head right this second.’
‘It wasn’t an invitation. Simply an observation.’
There was a small silence.
‘Don’t you have work to do or something?’ Holly said.
Zack glanced at the tower of paperwork on his desk. ‘Yep. But I’m looking forward to playing later.’
* * *
Holly was standing at the window when Zack pulled up in front of her flat later that day. She’d been in two minds about whether to go out with him. The more time she spent with him, the less self-control she had. Even the sound of his voice was enough to set her hormones racing. Zack looked up at her and smiled and her heart gave a skip. She stepped away from the window, annoyed he’d caught her waiting for him like an overly eager teenager going on her first date. But in a way that was exactly what she felt like. She had never felt this level of excitement with her exes. The heady anticipation of being in Zack’s company, the thrill of being so blatantly desired—it was enough to set her pulse soaring.
Holly opened the door to his confident knock, schooling her features into a mask of indifference. ‘Good evening.’ Her voice sounded like she was auditioning for a role as a head housekeeper on a period drama but how else was she going to keep her hands off him? He looked like he’d stepped down off a billboard advertising an exclusive male aftershave, the planes and contours of his cleanly shaven face making her ache to touch him, to trace every millimetre of his smiling mouth.
Zack stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him. ‘Come here.’ His tone was commanding. I-want-to-have-sex-with-you-right-now commanding. His sapphire-blue eyes locked on hers with electrifying heat.
Holly had no idea where her resolve had gone, but she stepped into his arms as if someone was pushing her from behind. There was no way she could resist him, nor did she want to. What would be the point? She wanted him. Wanted him with a persistent ache that pulsed deep inside her body. His arms came around her with steely strength, a gasp escaping her mouth just before his came down and covered hers.
His mouth moved with spine-tingling passion against hers, slowly, methodically, tantalisingly. He teased her lips apart with his lips, taking her lower lip between gentle teeth, tugging and releasing until her legs threatened to give way. He went to her lower lip, subjecting it to the same exquisite torture, his tongue stroking over where his teeth had been in a soothing salve that made something in her belly flip-flop-flap like a blown tyre.
‘God, I’ve been looking forward to doing that for the last forty-eight hours.’ His words sent a frisson skating over her flesh.
Holly slipped her arms around his neck, her fingers playing with the ends of his wavy hair that brushed his collar. He groaned against her mouth and deepened the kiss with a gliding thrust of his tongue that made her insides clench with desire. She breathed in the clean male scent of him, the lime and lemon and country leather smell that never failed to stir her senses.
His hands stroked up and down her back, one of them settling at the base of her spine to bring her closer to his hard heat. He was powerfully aroused and it thrilled her to think she had that effect on him. She moved against him in an unspoken plea for him to continue. How had she ever thought she could resist him? Her body was aching for him. Aching and weeping with want. Her legs felt heavy; there was a dragging sensation inside her, an empty hollow ache that wouldn’t go away.
He moved his mouth to the sensitive place below her ear and she shivered as his stubble grazed her face. ‘I want you so bad.’ His voice was a low gruff burr as exciting to her as a caress.
‘I want you too.’
His eyes held hers with dark intensity. ‘Are you sure ab
out this?’
Holly pulled his head down. ‘Stop talking. Kiss me. Touch me. Make love to me.’
Zack brought his mouth back down to hers, his arms gathering her close, making her aware of the heat and throb of his body. His tongue played with hers, teasing it into play with brazenly erotic movements that made her tremble with need.
He moved his mouth to her décolletage, his lips and tongue tracing the scaffold of her collarbone, before he dipped his tongue into the hollow between her clavicle. He moved back to the other side of her neck, caressing her with his lips and tongue until every nerve was doing a happy dance. He skimmed one of his hands over her breasts and even through the barrier of her clothes she felt the sensual magic of his touch.
He put a hand behind her to pull down the zip on her dress, the backs of his knuckles against her bare skin making her shiver. He peeled her out of her dress, letting it slip to the floor at her feet, his eyes devouring her. ‘You’re so beautiful...’ There was an edge of wonder in his voice that made her shyness fall away from her as easily and smoothly as her dress.
She began to work on the buttons of his shirt, and as she undid each one she pressed a kiss to his warm hard flesh. She felt him shudder the lower she got, the ridged muscles of his abdomen contracting under her lips. He shrugged himself out of his shirt and it fell to the floor with a whisper of fabric.
He took her by the hand and led her to her bedroom, turning her in his arms once they got inside next to the bed. He gave the single bed a rueful look. ‘The last time I had sex in a single bed I was sixteen.’
Holly grimaced. ‘Sorry.’
He smiled and pulled her close, his mouth brushing hers. ‘Maybe we should wait until I take you back to my place.’
She gripped him by the waist. ‘No. I can’t wait. I want you now.’
His eyes glinted. ‘Impatient little thing, aren’t you?’
Holly moved against the bulge of his erection. ‘I could say the same about you.’
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