The Billionaire’s Lighthouse Series: A Billionaire, Bad Boy, Romance
Page 18
Her body arches up to me and her hands run through my hair. Yeah, she really hates this. Not!
I have no idea what she’s doing or why but I’m stopping it once and for all. She’s crazy as hell if she thinks I’m giving her up!
Her hands move down to my shoulders then they’re between us as she unbuttons my shirt. The way her hands feel, roaming over my chest, makes my dick harder than it has ever been and I feel the strain of the material holding it back.
A snap decision has me letting her tit go and getting up, to quickly take these clothes off as she watches me with her bottom lip between her teeth.
Yanking the pajamas the rest of the way off, I see she’s wearing a very sexy panty and I growl as I rip it off her. Her eyes gain a fire with my action and when I move back down, she spreads her legs open for me. “Just one more time,” she whispers.
“That’s what you think,” I say with a laugh then lie next to her, looking down at her as I prop my head up with my hand and run my fingertips over her stomach.
“Let’s not talk,” she says as her hand moves over my shoulder, dragging me to her.
As our lips touch, I run my hand down all the way and find her wet and more than wanting as she arches up with the touch of my hand. Her hand runs around my cock, stroking it up and down.
I move my mouth off hers and kiss my way up her neck as she pulls at me to get on top of her. “Please, Zane,” she hisses.
Kissing just below her ear, I whisper, “Tell me that you love me.”
She groans and writhes with need which I will not be giving her without her confession. I know she loves me. I saw it right there in her green eyes when they landed on me at the front door.
“Zane, I can’t,” she moans as she pulls at me to mount her. “Please.”
With a nice hard bite to her neck, she screams with pleasure and arches up. “Tell me what you know I have to hear or this cannot happen.”
Her nails bite into my back as I run one hand down to her swollen bud and run it over it, teasing it. The growl she makes sets my internal fire into a blaze of need. But I hold onto it until she says the words I have to hear.
Manipulating her clit until she’s screaming with a climax, I know I nearly have her where I want her. “You want to feel me inside of you, don’t you?” I say as I graze my teeth along her neck.
She’s arching, bucking, gripping the sheets and moaning. She shakes her head and I plunge two fingers into her wet depths. She pumps up to me. “Yes, Zane!”
I pull my fingers back out. “Say it.”
With a hard bite and a suck, I hear her. “I love you, Zane. I’ve always loved you.”
“I know you have,” I whisper in her ear then blow in it. Then I roll off the bed as she opens her eyes and looks confused and a little afraid. “On your knees.”
A smile flashes at me then she’s on her knees and backing up to me. With one hand I take her waist to hold her and the other I use to deliver a nice slap to her rounded ass. The sound she gives me lets me know she liked it and I give her another one then I slam into her.
She screams and puts her head down into a pillow she’s hanging on to for dear life as I pound into her. Her insides are quivering with elation. The way her entire body is shaking lets me know she was never pretending with me.
There’s something deeper and I will get to the bottom of it. First, though, I have to quench this thirst for her. I can feel another orgasm starting inside of her and her shrieks let me know just how intense it is for her.
Moving faster, I keep it going until I can’t take it anymore and let mine go too. Our heavy breathing is filling the room as I lie her down then lie next to her, letting my arm hang over her hot body.
“I love you, Elizabeth.”
“I love you,” she echoes and now I can fall asleep.
For the first time since she left me, I can easily fall asleep!
Chapter 6
ELIZABETH
The sky is a brilliant blue as I look out the windows on the observation deck. Zane is still asleep in the bedroom and I’ve woken up early to watch the sunrise like a do every day since I moved into the lighthouse.
Last night was something I needed desperately. But today I have to make sure he understands this is over. I love him too much to let Meagan Saunders destroy what he’s made of himself.
I hope there’s no need for there to be a fight. I did tell him that I loved him and that was a huge mistake on my part. But he wasn’t about to let me have what I needed unless I did and to be honest, it felt amazing slipping off my tongue again.
How great it would be if something would just happen to Meagan. Maybe there’s a tornado somewhere in Kansas that could somehow pick up a house and drop it on her!
I find myself smiling about the woman’s demise and that has me a little unhappy with myself. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about someone’s death making me happy.
Damn woman!
She has me going against all kinds of things in my head. My first real love and she has me denying him. With no idea of what the hell I can do to stop her, I only know I have to protect Zane.
The only way to protect him is to hurt him. Maybe I could fake my own death. That would help him. Not me, so much, but he’d know, then that what we have is over for good.
My stomach hurts with the thought. I don’t want it to be over!
But things aren’t up to me anymore. Everything is up to that bitch. And I wonder why Zane is helping her on the road to being governor. He’s never spoken a word about politics to me.
“Hey,” I hear him say and turn back to see him wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.
“You showered?” I ask. “Hmm, I thought you’d have invited me to join you.”
“I slept so damn hard, I had to use it to wake my ass up.” He flops down on the sofa next to me and throws his arm on the back of it. Then he pulls me to lie back on his chest.
I do as he wants. No need to start this up with him looking so damn tired. “You’ve had trouble sleeping or what?”
“Yes,” he says. His lips touch the top of my head. “You have no idea what your leaving did to me.”
Like a knife to the heart, his words penetrate it. “It was necessary.”
“Can you tell me why? And please don’t lie and say because you thought you didn’t love me. We both know that’s a lie. After last night and what I saw in your eyes, I know you love me.”
And now I’m stuck. I knew I’d never be able to hide the way I feel about him. My eyes are my weak spot. They convey every emotion I have to people. I’m an open book.
“Let me make you some breakfast, Zane.”
Turning me around, he pulls me to lie on top of him. I’m only wearing a robe with nothing underneath as I grabbed it when I left the bedroom this morning. “Let me take you to eat.”
“Bad idea,” I say and run my hand through his wet hair.
“Why?” He grabs my wrist then kisses my palm. “We are back together, Elizabeth.”
“That sounded like you telling me instead of asking me,” I say with a little laugh. The thought flits through my head that this might be the start of an argument that I can fake escalate into a breakup.
“I was telling you,” he says with a chuckle. His arms tighten around me, squeezing me.
“Zane, damn it! You know I don’t like to be told things,” I shout and pull out of his arms.
Getting off him and standing up, I see him looking at me with confusion. “Okay, chill. I was kind of joking.”
“Kind of?” I ask as I tie my robe back up that he somehow managed to get undone without me noticing. “Zane, you were serious. Admit it.”
“Why do you look pissed with an edge of crazy to it, Elizabeth?” he asks me as he sits up.
“I am pissed. I don’t like you thinking that you control this thing we have. I’m an equal part in it and I don’t like being told we’re back together. I still have some reasons why that’s not a good idea.”
“I think we both know this will never work out. I’m quick tempered and it would end up making you hate me,” I say as I take another step back.
He laughs and takes a step forward. “Your temper doesn’t scare me.”
“I didn’t say it scares you. I said it bothers you.” Crossing my arms, I close myself off to him and he notices as he looks at them.
“It actually doesn’t bother me. I can handle you.”
Now that actually does make me mad!
“You think you can handle me?” I ask as I make little quotation marks in the air. “You cannot handle me!”
“This is being blown way the hell out of proportion. Let’s get dressed and go have a nice breakfast and enjoy this lovely fall day. The rain last night has made everything fresh and I want you to show me how you and your gramps used to look at things after a rain. The way you told me you two did.”
Him bringing up Gramps takes the wind out of my sails. It reminds me of something I’ve tried damn hard to forget. “Today is the two-year anniversary of the day he passed away.”
Zane’s eyes go big then his arms are around me and his lips are pressing little kisses all over the top of my head. “Oh, baby. No wonder the agitated mood. I’m so sorry. You know what, I get it now. I know why you don’t want to go out for breakfast. I’ll make you something.”
My hand is taken by his and he pulls me down the stairs. “Zane, we need to get things straight.”
“Here’s the only thing that’s going to get straightened out for now. “I’m going to run you a nice hot shower and you will take that shower while I make you something fantastic to eat. Then you and I will take a walk and I want you to point out the places you and your gramps had special times at. I want you to spend this day remembering him and I want to hear every funny or sad little story you have about the man.”
“You do?” I ask, feeling like a horrible person to be treating a man this good the way I’ll have to in order to save him from that awful woman.
“I do,” he says as he pulls me into the bedroom then the bathroom. “I’m going to lay out your clothes so you don’t have to worry about picking anything out. Today is all about you and remembering the man you loved so much.”
The tears are threatening me as he turns the water in the shower on then unties my robe and pushes it off me. I get ready for a soft touch or some sexy moan but am surprised when he merely takes my hand and ushers me into the shower.
“There you go, baby. You relax and take a shower while I do the rest. I love you.” And then he’s gone.
I’m more than a little surprised that my naked body got no reaction out of him and then it sinks in just why that is.
Then the tears fall like the water coming out of the shower head. It’s because he really does love me and he wants to be here for me while I remember my gramps. He’s amazing and wonderful and I know I have to hurt him. But God help me, I don’t want to!
Chapter 7
ZANE
This woman is going to be a real treat to grow old with. When she hits those menopausal years I may have to keep her ass sedated until they’re over!
“Okay, so don’t tell you how much I like every sweet story you tell me about your gramps. I get it now. I’ll keep my comments to myself then,” I say in response to her shouting at me to stop kissing her ass, which I am not doing, by the way.
“Zane, how much more can you take of me?” she asks as she falls to the wet ground on her ass, near the shoreline.
“I know you’re having some mourning issues. Trouble dealing with the loss of your gramps. I can put up with quite a lot. From you, anyway.” Taking her hand, I lift her back up and dust the wet sand off her bottom. “It’s lunch time and I called the market to have lobsters flown in from Maine. I’m going to attempt to cook them. You did say lobster dinners were a thing you and he did on your birthday. I thought it might be a great reminder to you.”
She comes along with me and kicks at the ground as she does. “Zane, why are you so damn nice to me?”
“I suppose it’s because I love you.”
She stops and I turn back to look at her. “Please stop telling me that. You’re making this so much harder than it has to be.”
“Making what harder?” I ask then tug at her to come along again.
She stands firm. “This isn’t going to work. This had to end. You have to see that.”
Letting her hand go, I find heat rising inside of me. “Okay, tell me what the fuck is going on. Now!”
“It’s just that this will never work.”
Cocking my head to the side, I ask, “Is there someone else?”
Her arms fly into the air as she shrieks, “Why do guys always have to do that? Why can’t you believe the fact women do not have to have anyone else in their lives to break up with their current man?”
“I don’t know,” I say as I throw my arms up too. “Maybe because everything is going right. The sex is off the chain. Tell me it’s not.”
She simply stares up at the sky. “So,” she finally says.
“So?” I ask as I glare at her. “Tell me it’s not great.”
“So what if it is great? There’s more to life than great sex.”
“I know that. Things like making the woman you love a part of everything you’re about. I do that with you. Things like thinking about what would make them happy. I do that for you.”
“Yes, we can both agree you are fantastic. It’s me who isn’t. I’m a real pain in the ass and you know it,” she says then walks quickly by me. “And being the pain in the ass I am will have you leaving me one day and I’m just trying to bring this to an end before my love for you destroys me when you leave. You will get tired of me.”
“I won’t,” I say and catch up to her. Taking her by the shoulder I spin her back to me. “There’s something you’re not telling me. I know it. You might as well tell me because I will find out anyway.”
She shakes her head. “I swear to you there’s nothing else.”
“If you’re worried about me getting tired of you then why not try harder to get along and stop letting that temper rule you. I know you tried a hell of a lot harder before to keep it under control. It’s only just started to surface this badly.”
Her hands go to her hips as she wags her finger at me. “And I suppose you’re going to say it’s because it’s my time of the month, aren’t you?”
I was thinking that but then I decided not to say it.
“No!” I shout. “Why do you think I’d say anything like that?”
“You’ve done it before. And you will do it again.”
I will do it again. I know I will. But I hate that she thinks that.
“Will not!”
“Will too!” She stomps her little bare foot to punctuate her sentence.
“You’re being very hard to be around and I know you’re doing this on purpose. But guess what, I love you. I will take your bad days. I will take your good days. I will take every day I can have with you. Because I cherish you, Elizabeth. It’d be great if you stopped trying to run me off because I am going nowhere.”
“Well, you have to!” she screams and runs into the house.
I stand stone still and watch her. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s got something going on that has her being this way. Or someone has her ass in a sling about us.
So I head inside, determined to get some real answers out of her. It’s becoming more and more obvious to me that there is more than just her behind this shit.
When I open the door, I find her sitting on the stairs crying her eyes out. I feel terrible and have no idea if this is over her dead grandfather or me or a bit of both.
“If I left here right this minute would it end your crying?” I ask her and wait for her to catch her breath to answer me.
A couple of tear soaked eyes look at me and she s
hakes her head.
So I turn and go through the door to the kitchen to see if the groceries were delivered while we took a walk and find the packages on the counter like I told them to leave them.
Setting about to make the lunch I had planned on, my mind eases a little with the fact it’s not my presence that’s making her so upset. Her cell phone is sitting on the counter and it starts playing some funky music. Seeing the name, Tanya, on the screen, I give it a swipe to answer it and take it to Elizabeth.
“Hello, Tanya. This is Zane. How are you today?”
“Zane?” she asks. “You are the man I need to talk to. Thank God, you’re here!”
“Oh yeah?” I ask as I turn back to stay in the kitchen and listen to what her friend and coworker is so happy to hear my voice about.
What has this woman been hiding from me?
Chapter 8
ELIZABETH
Sitting on the stairs, I cry and cry and have no idea how I can even stop. I love Zane. I love him more than I have ever loved anything or one. He’s proving to be more substantial than I could have ever hoped for.
But he has to go. This has to end for his own good. It’s killing me and I’m wishing he never came here. This is too hard to do in person.
Leaving a note and taking off was hard but nowhere near as hard as this is. With him not helping things, it’s making it nearly impossible to get him to realize we’re breaking up.
He seems to be so damned determined to stay together and that fact is making me love him even more. It’s terrible!
The door between the entry way and the rest of the house opens and Zane stands there, looking at me. “I’m not even mad at you for not telling me.”
“Huh?” I say then sniffle and wipe my running nose with the back of my hand.
“Gross,” he says as he wrinkles his nose. “Come on. Let’s clean you up. No need for any more tears. And I have no doubt in my mind that you really, really love my ass.”
“Why?” I ask as I allow him to take my hand, the one I didn’t wipe my nose with and lead me to the bathroom.
He doesn’t say a word as he picks up a rubber band off the vanity and pulls my hair back into a ponytail. Getting a washcloth out of the drawer he gets it wet and cleans my face. Grabbing a tissue, he holds it to my nose. “Blow.”