It’s a fool’s wish to think the past can be relived. I’m wise enough to know what we had then was powerful yet not enough. That said, there’s something about Zack, about this commanding hold he has over me. The way he demanded I come inside and now has my rapt attention with this game … I’m hypnotized by him, and it’s no surprise.
Turns out, I am a fool.
“My birthstone is a sapphire, I adore cats, and no matter what I do or where I go, I still think about you.” My heart stops, as I can’t believe the words that came out of my mouth.
“You were born in May,” he says, and my chest tightens.
“I guess you found my lie,” I breathe and feel the heat of his gaze right down to my core.
The air suddenly shifts.
No, it sizzles with an intoxicating energy.
Zack bites his lip, his tongue then darting out and doing a smooth cascade over the flesh that I suddenly want to taste badly.
His eyes, those piercing eyes, are smoldering hot lava right into me.
My breath hitches, my breasts rising until they’re tight in my blouse. I fear if I let go of the air in my chest, it’ll break the moment.
Break the sizzle.
“Stella,” he calls out the side of his mouth. “I’m off the clock.”
My sight doesn’t leave his, and it’s terrifying. I’m about to do something I know is going to end poorly.
“Call last call and start closing up for the night,” he tells her, and I swallow hard at the way he refuses to take his eyes off of me.
I need to text Monica and tell her I’m on my way, sick kid or not. I break the contact and get up from my seat. “I have to use the restroom.”
He gives a curt nod. “Down the hall.”
I grab my purse and shuffle away from Zack and all the feelings flooding through my body.
I head to the back, but the line for the ladies’ room is hella long, and my nerves don’t think they can handle waiting with the drunkards.
I look down the hall, remembering Zack disappeared down here earlier. Perhaps there’s a staff lounge or something I can sneak into.
I make my way to the end and see a stairwell. Its emerald-green carpeting leads up to the top where there’s a single door.
I knock. No one answers.
Turning the handle, I open it up and am inside an office. There’s another open door inside and I can see it’s a restroom. I make my way toward it when something comes to my attention. A photo hanging on the wall.
It has me stopping dead in my tracks.
5
Zack
Making my way around the bar, I tell Stella what needs to be done for closing time. The staff knows the drill too.
I glance at my watch and see the time. Jolene’s been gone for a while. Walking over to the restrooms, I see she’s not standing in the hall, nor is she inside when I knock on the ladies’ room door.
“Where the hell—” I notice the light on the stairwell and wonder.
As I walk upstairs and see the lights of my office shining from beneath the door, I know I’ve found her.
I open it up and stop when I see she’s staring at the photo on the wall. “What are you doing in here?” My question makes her jump.
If she knows who is in the pictures, she doesn’t say, nor does she ask questions. Instead, she walks toward my desk, as if trying to get some distance.
“There was a line downstairs, so I came up here to use the restroom. Nice office,” she speaks over her shoulder as she points toward the Murphy bed on the wall. “Home away from home?”
I explain, “Five days out of the week.”
Her brows rise. “And the other two?”
“The place you ran away from.”
She nods slowly, her chest rising as I take a step closer.
“It’s amazing, this place. It’s great to see you have a successful business and somewhere to call home.” She swallows. “And Stella.”
Ah, there it is, Jo. You’re still unsure. “She’s just a friend.”
Her body relaxes, and damn if that doesn’t satisfy me. I take another step closer, so she’s a few feet away from me.
“Are you married?”
“No.” My boots are heavy with every step.
“Girlfriend?”
I don’t answer immediately, so she turns around with parted lips. I shake my head, and a loud exhale escapes her mouth.
I stop mere inches from her quivering chest. Her eyes lift to mine as I lower my brow to look into her sinful brown eyes.
“Does that make you happy?” I ask her.
Her head rises and falls ever so subtly as her brow furrows.
“Why?” I demand.
“I don’t know. I don’t have a right to be jealous, and yet—”
“You can’t stand the thought of someone else being with me?”
I close the gap. My body is flush against hers, feeling every heartbeat and tremor radiating through her tight little body.
“Yes,” she breathes. “Is that wrong?”
“It’s horrible.” I place a hand on her cheek, and she immediately falls into it. My fingers shred through her silky hair, and I grasp it, savoring the feeling of touching this woman again.
Before this moment, I didn’t realize how desperately I’d longed to touch her. I dreamed of the words I’d say, and they were never meant to be kind. And yet she’s here, and all I want to do is bury myself deep inside her as I once did. I want to taste every delicious curve and bathe in her heat.
Like a mirage, she’s come to me, and I’m a dying man in the desert, waiting to take a drink.
I grip her waist and pull her closer. She lets out a whimper that makes my cock flinch.
“What are you doing to me?” I growl into her neck.
“I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
That’s all she has to say. My mouth is on hers, splitting her lips and sliding my tongue inside. I’m demanding, I know, and yet I try to be gentle, but, fuck, she tastes so good.
Her fingers grip my hair and pull me closer, so I push her back and up onto the desk, parting her knees and settling myself so our bodies are perfectly aligned. As I press my body weight deep into her, she wraps her legs around me and lets me draw closer.
Her skirt bunches up, so I lower my hands and push it until it’s up against her waist. I tear the stockings from her legs, exposing her thighs so I can run my hands, callous and coarse, up the sides of her porcelain skin. Softly at first and then with an intensity that has her clinging to my neck, sending wild tremors through her body.
“Zack.” She grabs my hair, and the pain sends me further into a frenzy.
If she’s been thinking about me all these years, I’m gonna give her something to never forget for the next decade.
“I dreamed of this,” I tell her as my mouth sucks the skin along her jaw. “Wondered what you were like.” I lay hard French kisses down the front of her neck. “What kind of woman you’d become.”
“And?” she asks just as my mouth is about to take hers again.
“You’re a goddamn siren. A temptress. And I have no control.”
“What is it you want to do to me?” she asks with bated breath.