And what kind of expectations would she have? He’d toyed with the idea of settling down over the years, but he wasn’t a nine-to-five kind of guy. And he would never pass the daddy-approval test. Senator Campbell made that damn clear all those years ago. So what the hell was he doing?
They ate in silence, each lost to their thoughts. Hell, she probably regretted the “yes” from earlier, anyway. She was too uptight to throw caution to the wind. Reagan finished her meal and tossed her plate in the trash.
He emptied the two containers of food and cleaned up the dinner mess then plopped down on the bed. “Reagan, about earlier, when you said ‘yes’—”
“Oh, if you changed your mind, I totally understand.” Her face tinged pink.
Changed his mind? Like hell he’d changed his mind. “I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“Hey, you never ate your fortune cookie.” Reagan picked up the cellophane wrapped fortune cookies and held them out to him in her palm.
“Oh, yeah? Well, let’s take a look.” He picked up the cookie closest to him. “You ever play the game where you add ‘in bed’ to the end of your fortune?”
“No, but I’m not surprised you’re suggesting it.”
“You first.”
She unwrapped the cookie and broke it in two. Her gaze flickered over the small piece of paper.
“Come on. What’s it say?”
“Read yours first,” she said.
“Fine.” He cracked his cookie open and read the fortune. “Your search for happiness will rekindle an old relationship…in bed.” Zach didn’t put much faith in the pre-packaged hokey fortunes, but this one seemed a little too on target. “Your turn. What’s yours say?”
“Does yours really say that?”
Zach nodded and held it out to her.
She shook her head and read her fortune. “The next few days are a lucky time for you. You can take a chance… in bed.”
“Ha. And does yours really say that?”
She angled the tiny piece of paper toward him. He climbed onto the bed to take a look. Reagan shifted away from him slightly.
“Hey, I’m not going to bite or anything.”
Her eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. Then she ducked her head and focused her attention on the bedspread.
“What if I want you to?” Barely more than a whisper, her voice took on a husky roughness that rubbed along already raw nerve endings.
He cupped her chin with his hand and lifted her face to meet her gaze. The emotion he saw there almost made him turn away. Hope, hesitation, and something else. Something that looked a lot like desire.
Reagan met his stare then looked away. “I’m not sure how this works, sorry, I’m—”
Zach put his finger to her lips, stopping her words. “There’s no agenda, cupcake. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
She nodded then lifted her heavy-lidded gaze to his. Her teeth captured her bottom lip, drawing his attention to her mouth. God, did she even know how sexy she was? The towel slid off her head and her hair hung in damp strands around her shoulders. He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. She shivered.
Where was the brash, opinionated backseat driver he’d been carting to Florida? She’d left this nervous, deer-in-the-headlights ingénue behind in her place. Much like their botched first intimate interaction, an awkward silence descended.
“Nobody’s going to interrupt us this time, I promise.”
She let out a nervous laugh. “I know. Doesn’t make me stop thinking about it, though.”
“Yeah, that was a crazy night.” He tried to remember what kind of moves he’d made on her all those years ago but couldn’t. Probably said something he thought was super smooth at the time.
“Do you remember what you said to me?” she asked.
“You mean after you started to hiccup?”
“Yes, after the hiccups.”
Zach shook his head.
“You asked me if I trusted you.”
Damn, that’s right. She’d been so nervous around him. He’d promised her the same thing back then—that they didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to. “I remember now.”
Her hands fisted in the hem of the T-shirt she had on. “I said yes, then, Zach, and I still trust you now.” She lifted the shirt over her head. The dim light played over her bare skin.
A puzzling combination of sensations slammed into him all at once. First, the twinge cut through him, causing him to draw in a sharp breath. At the same time the sight of her bare-chested and so obviously ready to give him access to the most sacred, private part of her ignited a heat deep within him that radiated out, sending a scorching wave of desire through him.
Reagan’s hands reached for the waistband of his boxers. He slid them down his legs and let them drop to the ground as he climbed onto the bed and knelt in front of her. Could he go through with this? Every part of him urged—hell yes.
Reagan wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She’d been here before. Not this hotel room, of course, but she’d been in this situation with Zach a million times in her head. Somehow the in-the-flesh version of him was so much better than she had imagined. Now that she had access to the raw material, it would be that much easier to keep the fantasy alive for the next time she wanted to conjure him up in her dreams.
Tanned, chiseled, broader than she remembered, his chest centered at her eye level. Making a conscious effort to avoid looking down, she let her gaze travel up his pecs, over the couple days’ growth on his neck and chin, and settle on his mouth.
Her fingers itched to run over Zach’s irresistible bod, to see if he truly felt as hard as he looked. Reagan rose to her knees, positioning herself within inches of him. He made a move like he was going to wrap his arms around her but stopped himself. She went to circle his neck, but her hands fluttered in the air, unwilling to make the first contact.
“Are we going to kneel here and look at each other all night?” Zach joked.
“Maybe this was a bad idea. I’m so out of practice, forget—”
Her words disappeared as his lips touched hers. They stayed that way for a long moment, their lips the only point of connection between them. Then Zach’s hands settled on her hips and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down to hers, increasing the intensity of their kiss.
Their bodies slid to the mattress, settling in a tangled mess of arms and legs on the bed. His hands skimmed over her stomach, leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake. She tangled her fingers in his hair and let her other hand dip between them, finally allowing herself to test the hard planes of his chest.
He was so much more than she’d fantasized about. In every way. When he’d first invaded her dreams, he’d been seventeen and they’d only made it to second base. A lot of detail had to be filled in by using her imagination. Seeing him in the flesh, her chest pressed against his, his legs twined with hers, was so much better than she pictured. His mouth moved from her lips, trailing kisses from her cheek to her ear. A cascade of shivers raced down her side, from her head to the tip of her toes.