She swallowed and ran the back of her hand over his strong jaw.
Mike’s breaths came in quick succession and his heart raced. He lowered his voice and leaned in. “I never knew I could feel this way again.” He sucked in a stark breath as electricity coursed through his veins at their proximity. He sought out and found the swell of her lips. Lightly, he licked each one before slipping his tongue inside.
She felt like his long-lost friend and the woman he’d been searching for all wrapped up in one. He was falling in love with her all over again, and this time, he wasn’t going to let her push him away.
Chapter Nineteen
Zora
Most of Sunday was a blur. Zora was working on virtually no sleep at all—not because she and Mike clawed into the mind-blowing sex she’d hoped her braless body in a short black dress would inspire. It was their raw and open talk. They’d had to be vulnerable in a way they’d never allowed themselves to be around each other. With the floodgates finally open, neither of them wanted it to end.
They literally didn’t sleep.
After the night rolled into the tiny hours of the morning, the day called. She got up and picked up Blue from the dog hotel. When he saw a familiar face, he was a furry mass of wet kisses and soft nudges. Mike agreed to food shop for the ingredients she needed for her recipes. In between errands, they’d managed to exchange less than a dozen or so sleepy words.
Then again, there wasn’t much left to say that their longing expressions didn’t already communicate.
With her skin still oozing coffee fumes, Zora moved about the kitchen to pour food from a gigantic bag into a bowl for Blue.
“Hey,” she said to Mike who was quietly sitting at his makeshift desk at the dining table. He looked as scrumptious as ever with a pen propped behind his ear. He was absently biting his lip and showing no signs of their sleepless night—no sign of dark circles under his gorgeous, bright-green eyes.
On the other hand, Zora, who was going for breezy and chipper, only managed to sound like a croaking frog.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t hear you walk in. I’m just trying to get a handle on this before Monday.”
You’ve got this. Just be normal.
Just because the rules were officially out the window and butterflies were apparently permanent residents in her stomach, there was no need to cannonball into this. Maybe, just dip her toes in—baby steps.
“No worries. I didn’t want to bother you. Have you eaten?” she asked, grabbing a big pot and setting it on the stovetop.
“Nah, I haven’t done much besides sit here and wrack my brain over this building nonsense.” Mike sighed at the paper in front of him and lifted his gaze to Zora. “Why? What have you got going on over there?”
She’d wanted him to look at her, but she couldn’t have prepared herself for the weight of his undivided attention. The way he watched her was all-consuming and heavy. She breathed out slowly, remembering his words from their talk.
I’m not going anywhere, Zo. I’ve always been right here waiting for you.
“Uh, just a little something to kick this cold. Soup.” She flashed him a quick smile before averting her gaze. She dug colorful vegetables and herbs out of the refrigerator and loaded them on the counter. “I’ll make you a bowl when it’s done.”
Zora was still groggy. Her head was stuffy and her body achy and weighed down from the hard mattress of the guest bed. Still, she had yet to come down from the high after everything they’d said to each other the night before…that morning. “Happy” was not a strong enough word to describe her emotions. Floating…no, levitating was more like it.
Her heart had swelled so full she could hardly keep it in her chest.
Today, every time they passed each other she was positively giddy. Earlier that morning, when she’d gone to freshen up in his bathroom, since the one for guests was being retiled, she was instantly swept into a haze of Mike’s scent. It had taken her down, literally, to her knees. Actually, she’d been snooping in his medicine cabinet and under his sink to nail down the woodsy, minty fresh aroma. It turned out to be a combination of Old Spice, winter fresh mint mouthwash, and ocean breeze body wash.
This was what being near him did to her. The man was intoxicating, and Zora was drunk on him.
No wonder I’m slurring my words.
A bout of tingles tickled her nose and she held up a finger as she squinted her eyes. Not now. Her nostrils flared and her lips quivered. She just knew she looked somewhere between nauseated and dizzy.
Then, a spastic sneeze escaped.
“Whoa! Bless you.”
“Thanks.” She sniffled. “Shit. I’m going to need something stronger than spicy chicken noodle soup. I need some feel-good food in a bad way.” She rubbed her throat as she swallowed before turning to pour in the broth. With the fire on high, she just stood there holding onto to the stove.
“Need any help?”
“No, I’m just stuffy and sneezing. I feel like shit, and I don’t have a clue how I’m going to make this deadline if I get any worse.”
“Don’t worry. I, uh, grabbed you some medicine while I was at the store, just in case. It’s in the bathroom on the sink. I kind of heard it in your voice last night.”
Mike was still engrossed in his pile of papers, but Zora was shell-shocked. Her eyes went wide as she shot him an incredulous look. For a second, she just watched him, wondering how she’d missed this thoughtful, caring person. Somehow, she always thought he was being nice to her because she was Everett’s sister, but this was some heady stuff. She wasn’t sure how to be this way with Mike.
She whipped her head back to her pot where a few faint bubbles were beginning to rise. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
The room went silent and Zora could feel the awkward tension thickening the air. “It was pretty stupid going out in a tiny dress in the rain, wasn’t it? Probably only made it worse.”
Wow, I’m really on a roll.
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
Zora placed the chicken breasts in a pan and began cutting the vegetables, but she was still watching Mike from the corner of her eye. His brows were drawn together as he rested his chin on his steepled fingers. He’d gone back to scouring his table full of documents and was brooding, cerebral-looking, and apparently unaware his small gesture was huge for Zora.
A fresh wave of desire to slammed into her. At that moment, she knew whatever this connection was they shared, she wasn’t willing to let it go.
“What’s the problem?” Zora asked. She was focused and calm as she measured seasonings, but she was still watching him out of the corner of her eye. “Your silence is so loud.”
He teetered back onto the hind legs of the chair with his arms propped behind his head and laughed. “That obvious, huh? It’s just, I don’t know if you follow what’s going on with the real estate end of things, but I’m just trying to figure out where your brother’s head was when he decided to do this deal with Arnold.”
“Harrison Arnold?” She looked squarely at him now.
Nodding, he seemed to stifle the rest of his laugh. “Yeah, why?”
Why did he just assume she didn't follow the inner workings of the business? He knew she was a partner.