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His eyes sparkled with mirth, and her heart turned over.Of the many facets of Zach, his playful side rarely shone through, but when it did, she was overwhelmed all over again by how much her heart yearned for him.
They ploughed through several courses, their appetites voracious.Easy banter accompanied the beer and good food, and his husky, deep laugh drew more than a few glances throughout dinner.
Once the waiter had cleared away the warm water, soap and hand towels he’d indulgently brought for them to clean up with, Zach took another swig of his beer and settled the tab.
“You’re coming back to the penthouse with me.”It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t bother framing it as such.
“Zach.”
He shook his head.“I don’t want to spend another night without you.”A trace of tension returned.
She sighed and twisted her napkin in her fingers.“Zach, don’t take this the wrong way, but you wear me out.”
One corner of his mouth lifted.“And you love it.”
“Yes, I do.”There was no point denying it.“But I really want to do a good job on the IL project.To do that I need to pay some solid attention to what I’m doing.I can’t do that with you around.”
“I distract you,” he said slowly after he drained the last of his beer and set the bottle down.
She snorted.“Is that a serious question?”
He frowned and looked genuinely hurt.Well.Go figure.
“You distract me too, but you don’t see me asking for time off.Come back with me.I’ll set you up in the library, and I promise I’ll keep my inappropriate thoughts and hands to myself.I’m sure you can do the same.”
“I don’t have inappropriate thoughts,” she lied brazenly.
“You don’t need to.Your whole fucking tight body is an inappropriate thought.”
“Zach!”
His grin was wide and unashamed, the tension gone.She had no doubt it would return.And soon.For one thing, she couldn’t avoid his heated demands to look at him when they fucked for much longer.She’d learned very early on what it meant to him to look into her eyes when he possessed her.She’d gotten away with it twice.She was almost certain there wouldn’t be a third time.
For another thing, the time was creeping up for her next question.And she had a suspicious feeling he wouldn’t like the question burning at the back of her mind.
He pulled her close beside him in the car and slung an arm over her shoulders.She leaned in and breathed deeply.He smelled of heat, and sandalwood and pure, unadulterated male.She glanced up at him and saw the teeth marks she’d left on his neck earlier.Then she glanced down and saw the faint bruising on his wrists.
“Admiring your handiwork, Peaches?”he teased.
Mortification drenched her.She kissed his neck and traced her fingers over his wrist.“I… Does it hurt?”
“For what I got in return, I’d take this and worse.”
“That would probably please me if I had a pain fetish.But I don’t.So I’m sorry.”
He tilted her face to his, serious eyes studying her.“I don’t want you to apologize for anything we do in bed, or out of it.We’re finding our way and I don’t care how we do it.As long as we do it together.Understand?”He waited until she nodded, then placed a hard kiss on her lips and tucked her head under his chin.
They remained silent for a few minutes.She closed her eyes and just listened to his steady heartbeat.
Then she sighed.“I still want to go back to my place, Zach.”
He stiffened.“Christ, Bethany.Do I need to fuck a yes out of you?”he growled.
She opened her eyes and met his intensely irritated gaze.“You could just try saying yes?”she ventured, trying to appeal to his rapidly diminishing reasonable side.“It would make me happy,” she added.
His eyes darkened, and he sucked in a long, harsh breath.“I ought to take serious issue with you even suggesting you would be happy to be without me for one night.”
“But?”