Читать книгу The Mistresses Collection - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 27

Zack growled. “Cruiser, get your nose out of there.”

“He’s definitely found something,” Trinity said.

Probably scaring the life out of some poor squirrel, Zack thought.

Cruiser barked. Propped up in Trinity’s arms, Bonnie screeched and, delighted, tried to clap her hands.

After the Loger/Necky scene, the mood had been strained. When the sun had poked through its thinning cover of clouds and the snow looked as if it was covered with a billion scattered diamonds, Zack had suggested they all get some fresh air. He’d loaned Trinity some boots that were way too big and an overcoat that came down past her shins. After bundling the baby in blankets, he’d shrugged into a bomber jacket and had led the other three outside.

He hadn’t intended for the toy pantomime to veer off in that direction, with his instincts taking over and body leading where he clearly wanted to go. And Trinity’s determination to refuse him only made the need stronger. More insistent. Watching her saunter around in his cashmere sweater all morning had driven him near crazy. At one point, when the baby had been down, he’d very nearly crowded her into a corner and spoken to her in a language she had to understand. Could be something to do with deprivation of sensation—being stuck out here on their own—but whenever she was remotely near, every cell in his nervous system lit up like a pinball machine and gravitated toward her. And he could see in her eyes, hear in her voice, she felt it, too.

Tomorrow Child Services would be out and that would be the end of playing house. But before they said goodbye, he was determined to have Trinity curled up around him, murmuring his name while they made love throughout the night. He needed to end the anticipation. Once and for all, put those fires out. But all that would need to wait till dark.

Now he packed a snowball in his hands and pitched a slider at Cruiser’s butt. The dog jumped then crouched low before zipping off full speed at them, skidding out at the last minute and spraying snow all over them. Trinity was laughing while she checked the baby whose smile split her little face. When Zack pegged another, it hit Cruiser’s leg and he did the galloping skidding thing all over again. But this time rather than running off, he arced around and caught the back of Zack’s coat in his teeth and tugged, trying to drag him back.

“Hey, quit that!” Zack pulled the other way while Trinity and the baby ended up in fits.

When his jacket was finally free, he lunged at the dog who dodged at the last minute. Zack landed face-first in the snow.

His head shooting up, he blew snow from his mouth and caught Trinity’s stage whisper to her conspirators.

“Quick, let’s get him. Let’s get Zack.”

Cruiser was barking, his tail wagging furiously and the baby was squeaking, her arms going crazy while she giggled. Trinity pounced up and kicked snow over his back and legs at the same time the dog leaped over him, back and forth like a not-so-graceful steed in a steeple race.

Sliding in the mush, Zack got to his feet. He was outnumbered and cold and near out of breath from laughing. But he was far from defeated. Meaning business now, he prowled toward Trinity and Bonnie. Her eyes flashing in a stream of late afternoon sunshine, Trinity blinked several times then backed up toward the house.

“Okay. Game’s over.”

“Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”

“I’m holding the baby.”

“She’s in trouble, too.” Cruiser barked and Zack narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t worry. You’re next.”

Zack belted forward and swung Bonnie out of Trinity’s arms. After twirling her carefully in the air, he set her in her carrier, which sat in its upright position on the porch, then set off after Trinity. When he caught her, they both fell into the snow while Cruiser yapped and their laughter echoed through the trees. Then the dog trotted off to look out for the baby and suddenly everything other than a pair of beautiful violet-colored eyes faded into the background. His blood was singing, his senses sparking and she was trapped in his arms, her lips so pink and close and tempting. There was no escape. He was going to kiss her, and when he was finished, he’d take a breath and damn well kiss her again.

His gloved palm holding steady the back of her head, he slanted his head over hers. Because she was panting and winding down from a fit of laughter, he didn’t have to work to part her lips. He struck gold on contact and, without thinking, she accepted then embraced his kiss.

As their tongues wound around each other and the sizzle morphed into a burn, he drew her shoulders in and gave her no room for doubt. He’d found the magic combination to her lock and now that she was open to the possibilities he wouldn’t let anything hold them back.

Except, of course, the fact they had a three-month-old probably wondering why all her fun had stopped.

Reluctantly Zack forced his saner self to surface and broke the kiss, but his lips stayed close to hers. He meant for her to see the hunger blazing in his eyes.

“It’s been a good afternoon,” he murmured while his blood throbbed and, giving in, his head angled down again.

But, still out of breath, Trinity turned away. “We have to go in. Bonnie needs her bath.”

“She’s already had her bath.”

“It’s getting dark.”

Grazing his lips over her cheek, he smiled. “I know.”

“The baby—”

“Will sleep in the bedroom tonight and before you remind me about our responsibilities, it’s a well-known fact that adults make love with babies in the house.” His smile brushed her cheek.

She seemed to hold her breath. “It’s not a good idea.”

“It’s possibly the best idea I’ve ever had.”

“I don’t even like you.”

He frowned. “You don’t know me.”

“All the more reason—”

“For you to say yes…”

An hour later, Trinity emerged from that bedroom and announced, “She’s down.”

From the kitchen, Zack looked over. “That was easy. Is Cruiser at his post?”

“Couldn’t drag him away if we tried.”

“Ready to eat? We have omelet à la Zackery. Secret ingredients are mushrooms and cheese.”

“Sounds delicious.”

Trinity held the plates while he cut the omelet with his spatula, served up half each and, as usual, her nerve endings began to buzz. How would she ever survive the evening without having Bonnie as an excuse to put between herself, Zack and his confessed intent to finish what they’d begun last night and this afternoon in the snow.

Sitting at the table, he poured them both a generous glass of white wine then put some salad from a center bowl on his plate. While Trinity absently found some lettuce, Zack enthusiastically sliced into his eggs. She was moving a mushroom around when, on his second mouthful, he frowned.

“No good?”

“I’m sure it’s delicious. I want to clear the air first.”

He chewed, swallowed. “Clear away.”

“About that kiss this afternoon.”

“I’m sure our communication there couldn’t have been clearer.” His fork bobbed at her plate. “Your omelet’s getting cold.”

“But I’m not finished—”

“And if the baby wakes up you’ll need some nourishment, so eat now. I promise I’ll listen to everything you have to say later.”

Trinity nibbled her lip. She didn’t like the gleam in his eyes. She didn’t think he’d give her any more of a chance to talk when they’d finished here. In fact, she could envisage him quietening her words with another of those devastating kisses. She had her ethics, but how could she hope to win against that?

But in a way he was right. Hopefully Bonnie was down for good, but bedtime and babies wasn’t a science. And this omelet did smell and look divine. A growl from her stomach decided for her.

A few minutes later, halfway finished, she said, “This is really very good.”

“I don’t cook much. Back home I usually don’t get out of the office until late. If we don’t get food delivered and I don’t have a dinner engagement, I pop into a great steak place a couple of blocks away.”

“I’m amazed you don’t have a bevy of women lining up to cook for you.”

He sent her a knowing glance before collecting his wine goblet. “My brothers are the domesticated ones, remember.”

She feigned an enlightened look. “How did I forget?”

They both knew women lined up to do a whole lot more than flip Zack’s steak. Although…

“The way you were getting along with Bonnie this afternoon, anyone might be fooled into thinking you’re a regular family man.”

That he might actually enjoy having his own wife and child around. Which was crazy. Zack was a bachelor businessman, pure and simple.

Although hadn’t she had a change of heart since caring for Bonnie? Yesterday a seed had been replanted, and now she couldn’t deny feeding into the fantasy of having a child of her own. Having a husband, a family…

Oh, but she was getting all muddled when, tonight like never before, she needed to keep everything straight.

Zack’s brows dipped before he drained the wine from his glass and made a sound of deep satisfaction in his throat. “This really is an exceptional year.”

Having tasted the wine, she had to agree. But no matter how enjoyable, she didn’t intend to indulge beyond one glass tonight. After that incredible kiss in the snow, he’d told her exactly how he felt. He wanted to make love to her. Sitting across from Zack now, looking so casual yet dynamic, if she was a weaker woman, she might easily fling her napkin to one side and suggest they cut dinner short.

But as much as she’d enjoyed the day and having the opportunity to see this other more human side of Zack, those other darker considerations kept weighing on her mind. She’d known he liked women, that he was beyond ruthless in business, but to discover via Kate this morning that he’d used another man’s sorrow to move closer to a contract’s finish line? It set her teeth on edge.

She was attracted to Zack in a way she hadn’t known existed but she couldn’t live with herself if she put physical need before her conscience. Not that iron man Zack would understand that.

When his cell lying on the counter buzzed, Zack went to check the message. Without replying to the text, he returned to the table and drew his chair in.

He took a long pull from his glass and explained, “Dirkins wants to see me tomorrow.”

Trinity sat straighter. “Do you think he’s ready to meet your offer?”

Had he succeeded in wearing the poor man down?

Zack collected his fork again. “Yes, I think he’s ready to sign.”

“Guess you finally got to him.”

He studied her then shrugged. “I’m sorry. You’ve lost me.”

Should she tell him what she knew or should she accept that she could do nothing to change the way Zack approached life and let it slide? The only rule in his world was “there are no rules.” Even when it came to an anguished father’s emotions. A broken man who’d been knocked down twice—once by the death of his son and again when Zack had insinuated he was in some way to blame.

Trinity shifted her plate away. Right or wrong, she needed to know. “How did James Dirkins’s son die?”

“Car accident.” Zack patted his mouth with his napkin and thoughtfully set it back down on his lap. “Some say it was suicide. Apparently he’d been troubled of late.”

“Apparently? So you did some research?”

His gaze sharpened. “Where’s this going?”

She couldn’t keep quiet. She had to ask, and if Zack didn’t want to admit that he’d played on this man’s feelings to gain an upper hand, she wouldn’t be surprised. Men like Zack rarely took responsibility. They only plundered the rewards. Or that’s the way the media depicted him.

But the man she’d come to know a little came across as more complex than that, and certainly capable of compassion. Being part of his pantomime for Bonnie and those games when they’d fooled around in the snow…Could that story about Zack putting those kinds of emotional screws into Dirkins really be true?

“When I spoke to Kate this morning,” Trinity began, “she said you’d let Dirkins know you believed he was somehow responsible for his son’s death.”

Zack’s brow furrowed and his gaze darkened until the irises appeared black. His voice was low and grating. “She said what?”

Her cheeks flushing, Trinity pushed back her chair. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“‘You’ being Trinity Matthews or the so-called free press?” He swore and dropped his fork on his plate before he met her gaze again. “Usually it doesn’t bother me, living in a society where everyone is consumed by what the other half wear and eat and say. It’s a circus. Three parts illusion and the other part bullshit.”

Trinity’s heartbeat was crashing high in her chest. She hadn’t expected this reaction. Was this some kind of show to get her on his side? Gain her sympathy? Or was he better than the press made out? Than even Zack might sometimes give himself credit for?

“Are you saying you didn’t suggest to James Dirkins that he as good as killed his own son?” she asked.

“Does it matter what I say? You people print what sells.” His lip curled. “And you think I should be ashamed of myself.”

His expression, his tone, the conviction of his words…

She gave a hapless shrug and muttered, “I didn’t say it was true.”

He looked at her hard then huffed like he was tired of it all. His plate in hand, he moved to the kitchen.

She glared at her own plate then came up with an idea that might work for everyone.

“Even if Dirkins can’t manage it on his own anymore, he must be torn. It’d feel like he was saying goodbye to his son again. Maybe there’s some other option where he can still be a part of the hotel without having to take all the responsibility. What if you offered him a partnership?”

His dish rattled into the sink. “I don’t do partnerships.”

Her lips and stomach tightened. “Of course you don’t.” How could she forget? His brothers believed in partnerships, not Zack.

He moved back to the table. “I’m not a bad guy. I go out of my way to be fair in business, to be a good son and uncle.” He reached, found her hand and pulled her to her feet. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m also a man who has normal desires and needs.”

She caught her breath but, defiant, challenged his gaze. “I’d noticed.”

“Tomorrow the authorities will come and take that baby away. Hopefully they’ll find her parents but either way our involvement will end.” His fingers brushed down her forearm, gripped her hand. “That doesn’t mean we have to stop seeing each other.”

The world tilted beneath her feet. Everything was suddenly way out of balance.

“You want to see me again?”

He brought her close. “What do you think?”

His mouth dropped over hers and her body flashed with an energy that had been building all day, that had bubbled on the brink of boiling over since she’d put the baby down. Now the fuel racing through her blood rushed to her core, making her feel heavy and hot and desperate for him to make good on the promise he’d made today. The promise about making love.

His hand cupped her cheek, directing the slant of her head while he worked a kiss that left her floating inches off the floor. The sensations and emotions were so powerful she wanted to thread her arms around his neck and forget about what was wrong or right, or smart or pathetically stupid. She was smoldering, unable to pretend she could walk away before experiencing more. And wasn’t that only human? Why shouldn’t she have this night? There was nothing stopping them except her pride. If this was a mistake, she’d need to live with it, like everything else.

She’d all but surrendered, fanning her palms up over Zack’s hard cashmere-covered chest, when his caress changed in tempo and in tone. His kiss was still expert and breathtakingly thorough but in her heart she was aware he knew he’d won. And as his hand moved higher and his fingers splayed up through her hair, she was at a loss to do anything other than sigh in surrender and dissolve that much more. The hard length of his body seemed to combine so seamlessly with hers, she couldn’t think where he finished and she began.

With his mouth still on hers, he swept her up into his arms. A moment later, she was vaguely aware of passing by Cruiser. Before he started up the stairs, his chest expanded on a breath and he reluctantly dragged his mouth from hers. As he peered down through lidded eyes, feeling the hammer of his heartbeat pumping through her own blood, she fought to get her breath.

“I can walk up myself,” she offered, “if I’m too heavy.”

The white of his teeth shone in the shadows as he flashed a smile. “I’ll manage.”

He carried her up to the second floor while Trinity’s pulse throbbed and her grasp of reality seemed to fall away. As he crossed to the center of a room draped in quiet shadows, she recalled her first impression of him in the cab, how his presence had dominated and his deep voice had more than intrigued. Later she’d thought how attractive his lips were, particularly the fuller lower one. She’d wondered how their bows would feel grazing over hers, never dreaming for a moment she’d find out.

Now as he stopped before the foot of a king-size bed, the need to know Zack Harrison intimately and all night was so powerful, she positively ached with it. After vowing never to succumb, at this high-octane moment she was leagues beyond ready.

First moving to elbow on a corner light, he then angled to flick back the covers before laying her gently on the bed. One knee on the mattress, the other foot on the floor, he sculpted a slow teasing hand over her shoulder while running a band of barely there kisses over every erogenous point from her brow to the sweater’s V at her breasts.

But in a corner of her mind an image of the baby, alone in that bedroom downstairs, sneaked in and, dragging herself from the headiness, Trinity sat up.

“What if Bonnie wakes and we don’t hear?”

His focus shifted to lifting the sweater up over her hips, her waist.

“I can attest to the fact,” he said, “that she’ll only have to squeak before Cruiser bounds up here to let us know.”

Her arms came up, the sweater came off and his heavenly mouth came down again, this time to taste a bone-melting trail along the sweep of one shoulder at the same time he snapped the clasp at her back. As the bra fell, those tantalizingly mouth-on-skin drops angled lower until he was lightly sucking the tip of one breast and she was going out of her mind. When the stiff tip of his tongue twirled a slow wet circle then flicked a few mind-blowing times, the buildup of sensations overflowed their dam.

While his palms on her bare back pressed her closer, she let her neck roll to one side and plied her fingers through his hair. When his head came away and cool air hit hot flesh, he urged her back down onto the sheet before drawing that other nipple deeply into his mouth.

Her mind floating and body humming, she soaked up the pleasure and waited. She imagined his tongue soon trailing lower as his slightly roughed fingertips grazed over tender peaks, rolling and gently pinching the tips. Instead his mouth drew completely away a moment before the furnace of his body left her, too. Bringing her arms up around to circle her head, she frowned and forced open her eyes.

He stood at the side of the bed, catching the back of his sweater then dragging the wool forward over his head before dropping it at his feet. With his hair mussed and his magnificent body backlit, a silver halo shone out from around his broad shoulders’ expanse. So muscular and bronzed, she couldn’t take her eyes off the extraordinary figure he cut.

He flicked open the button on his jeans, eased the zipper down and when he pushed on the hips, the denim rustled to the floor. In the shadows, she could make out the line of dark hair that arrowed from his navel to black briefs that were having a hard time keeping his erection penned in.

When he came to her, the light changed and every working muscle was cast in a mesmerizing show of rippling relief. He stopped to hover mere inches above her. Adoring his musky scent, she filled her lungs and threaded her arms around his neck.

“I’ve thought about this moment,” he said, “from the second you slipped into my cab.”

“From the very first second?” she teased.

He grazed his beard over her cheek. “Hmm…maybe before.”

She drove her hands up over the muscled contours of his shoulders, relishing the anticipation, and whispered close to his ear.

“Then we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

His hand trailed up her leg then detoured to find that most sensitive part of her. While he dropped soft, slow kisses down her neck, across her shoulder, two fingertips trailed up her center then settled into circling that swollen burning bead.

Everything but sensation dropped away. She was only aware of the slow, delicious flame that she never wanted to go out as his circling touch slowed to an agonizing pace that felt so incredible, she had to bite her lip and hold onto his arm to stop from grinding against him. But then he shifted, and she was left trembling on the edge.

Next thing she knew, he was easing inside her, his mouth covered hers and his hand found its way between them again. Trinity snatched back a breath as a bolt of heat ripped through her core. She was so close, she could see the orgasm in her mind, calling her nearer…hotter…higher.

When the friction between them reached fever pitch, he thrust in a final time and her world imploded with wave after wave of incomparable pleasure. She rode a roll of continuous peaks, murmuring his name, clinging to his heat, thanking fate.

And cursing it, too.