Page 46 of My Ex-Best Men (Ex Marks the Spot #4)

***Claire***

Z ane walked us both into the shower in his abandoned hotel room, still fully clothed. He laughed as I sputtered. “Let’s get you soaped up.”

After a few minutes of scrubbing myself over my dress, Zane peeled it off of me and we repeated the cleansing process over again.

As Zane washed my hair, I stood there, mind wandering.

“They should bottle Jerry’s smells and sell them as libido blockers.

You’ve had your hands all over me and I’m not attempting to climb you. He broke me.”

He rinsed my hair and added conditioner before turning me to face him. He looked sexy and rumbled in his wet clothes, with his wet hair hanging down in his eyes. He gave me a slow smile and then laughed when I groaned. “Not broken, baby. I can see that look in your eyes.”

I huffed at him. “Don’t tease me right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same. He just kept farting, Zane. It was the grossest version of a horror movie ever. It was so bad that I think Jordan and I might’ve come to a truce and bonded over it.”

He scowled. “No. He’s still persona non grata.”

For the first time since the gas event, I found myself relaxing. I bit my lip as I studied Zane’s unhappy face and even reached up to trace the lines of his furrowed brows. “Are you worried?”

He deepened his scowl and lightly wrapped his hand around my throat. His thumb stroked my sensitive skin as he leaned closer. “Should I be?”

Whatever humor had been hanging around slipped away as I gripped his wet shirt in my fists. “I think I proved my loyalty to you, Zane.”

His face pinched tighter. “And I didn’t.”

I suddenly couldn’t meet his intense gaze. We were both silent as he rinsed my hair and then shut the water off. I wasn’t sure how the mood had shifted so suddenly but it had and I wasn’t sure how to recover.

“It was stupid of me to think we could gloss over what I did.” He yanked off his own wet clothes and grabbed a towel to dry us both off.

As he worked it roughly over his own body he left red, flushed skin behind.

When he moved to me, he was as gentle as ever.

“I’m sorry. The way I left you was fucked up.

I was fucked up. I spent a lot of years chasing away my feelings and guilt with alcohol and worse things but nothing has ever felt as good as being back in your arms, Claire. ”

I stared up at him as he rubbed the towel over my hair. “Are you going to do it again?”

His face darkened and he dropped the towel before dragging me into his chest. “Never.”

That one word felt like the biggest promise I’d ever been made. The intensity in his voice made my pulse race. “Is it weird to promise you my loyalty when I’m with Will and Anthony, too?”

He ran his hands up and down my back, comforting me. “No. Tell me. I want to hear you tell me that you’re going to stay loyal to me, forever.”

I felt his erection pressing into my stomach, an angry beast pulsing between us, begging for attention. “I’m going to be loyal to you for the rest of my life, Zane.”

“And beyond.”

I smiled and leaned forward to rest my head on his chest. “And beyond.”

I gasped when he gripped my ass and picked me up. He put me down on the counter and stepped between my thighs, forcing them open wider. His hands slid around to my hips and then one dipped between my thighs to tease my clit. “I need to see you come and then I’ll take you back.”

My libido was back. I arched my back, offering him my breasts, and reached behind me to steady myself as he stroked my clit in just the right way to make me come hard and fast.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life making up for walking away from you.

Even when I’m old and gray, I’m going to wake up every morning with one thought in my head.

You. Making you laugh, making you happy, making you come hard.

It’ll never be enough, though, and when I die, I’m still going to follow you around like a lovesick teenager. ”

I gasped as he pushed me higher and higher, with his fingers and his words. “Zane!”

“I love you, Claire.” He said it as he pinched my clit and sent me sailing over the edge of my sanity.

I panted and tried to catch my breath while my mind raced.

He loved me? When he started to pull away, I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into me.

I wasn’t ready to say the words yet but I wanted him to know my feelings were real.

I kissed him with everything I could, doing my all to show him what I felt.

The next time he pulled back, I let him. His mouth twisted up on one side. “You’re crazy about me.”

I laughed because it was so Zane to break the intensity with just the right thing.

I realized something right then and decided to tell him instead of holding back.

“I don’t think I have as much fun without you.

Will and Anthony each bring their own thing to this crazy mess but you, Zane…

You bring me to life in a way that no one else ever has. ”

His eyes glowed with emotion that he quickly ducked his head to hide. “I’ll never walk away from you again. If you decide you don’t want this, Claire, you’ll have to fight me tooth and nail to get me to leave.”

I lifted his chin so he had to face me again. “Never.”

His hands gripped my thighs tight as he struggled with his control. “All I want to do is say fuck that dinner and bury myself as deep in you as I can get.”

“After. As soon as dinner’s over, you can drag me back to our room by my hair, caveman style, and do whatever you want to me.” I loved watching the fire burn in his gaze.

With a tension in his body that promised chaos later he stepped back and wrapped me in a towel. “We have to run to the house next door. Do not let that towel slip or you won’t be making it to dinner.”

I let out a wild laugh and took off. It was crazy how carefree I felt.

Running in just a towel across a very nice, very booked hotel wasn’t anything I ever would’ve done in London.

Jordan was right when he said I was different on the island.

I just hadn’t realized how different or how much I needed that difference to feel like I could breathe again.