V knew that. She did. In fact, she knew that if anyone should be freaking out, it should be Zane. He was the one who endured the trauma right there in her front yard. Not her. So why wasn’t he breaking down? Shaking like a leaf?
She knew why. Zane Walker was strong. Stronger than she was and V wasn’t referring to his physical capabilities. God, she just wanted to be stronger.
Zane didn’t release her, just pulled her closer to his side so they could move up the driveway, then up the steps to her front door. Somewhere along the way, she must’ve given him the keys because they made their way inside quickly, Zane closing and locking the door behind them.
“Shower,” he said as though that were the most logical choice of things to do. Did she smell that bad? It was true that she and Zoey had been working all morning, but she didn’t want to think he could smell her.
Looking up at him, she noticed that sexy smirk and then the lifting and lowering of his eyebrows as though he were telling her a secret with his eyes. For the life of her, V had no idea what he was trying to say.
He didn’t bother to explain either. Taking her hand, Zane pulled her down the short hallway to her bedroom, then he kept on going until they were in her small master bathroom. V felt a little self-conscious about her miniscule bathroom with the single sink and bath/shower combination. It wasn’t nearly as opulent as Zane’s immaculately designed home. There weren’t fancy sinks, or decorative faucets. In fact, they were all the standard, ugly brass, just like the doorknobs.
She had to remind herself that this was her house. She paid for it all on her own, and that’s what mattered most. It might not be extravagant, and it might not have a magnificent view of a bubbling creek and acres of farmland, but it was still hers.
V heard the shower come on, and she turned to face Zane, noticing that he had ditched his shirt somewhere along the way. The sight of all that glorious skin, tanned and rippled with muscle, made her mouth water. She never got tired of looking at him. He was striking.
“Take your clothes off,” he instructed, his voice once again firm and demanding, just as she’d come to expect from him, especially when he had that heated look in his smoky blue eyes.
V reached for the buttons on her sleeveless shirt, but her fingers were trembling so bad, she couldn’t make them work.
“I don’t want you thinking about anything except for what it’s going to feel like when I bury myself deep inside of you.” Zane’s voice was firm, but he didn’t sound angry. Not the way he had sounded the night before when he had pulled her on top of him, forcing her to look at him while he lodged himself deep inside of her.
She tried to focus on his words, but the panic that had become second nature was still swirling through her blood, making her skin tingle and the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She hated this feeling, but she had no idea what to do about it.
“Now, Vanessa. I want you naked, right now. If you don’t do it, I will, and you won’t like the shape your clothes will be in when I rip them clean off your body.”
V’s skin heated from his words; her mind visualizing him tearing her clothes from her body before slamming inside of her and calming her chaotic mind. She realized that’s what he was trying to do. He was diverting her thoughts to him, and she appreciated him for it.
More so than he would ever know.
“Is that what you want?” Zane took a step closer.
V glanced down realizing that the outfit she had on was one of her favorites. No, she didn’t want him to ruin it, so she managed to free the buttons before sliding her blouse off, letting it flutter to the floor, then doing the same with her skirt. She recognized her bra and panty set and knew it wasn’t one of her favorites, so maybe she should take him up on the offer, just to see what he would do.
“Is that a dare?” Zane’s question had V wondering whether she actually spoke the words out loud. “You better tell me now,” Zane continued, sliding his warm fingers into the thin strip of fabric over each hip.
The next thing V knew, she was standing there, her panties in Zane’s hands, torn directly from her body, leaving her bare from the waist down.
Chapter Twenty
♂♀
“You are so fucking sexy,” Zane growled the words through clenched teeth. He wasn’t trying to make a habit out of tearing her underwear from her body, but fuck, he was beginning to enjoy it.
For the first time since Zane pulled her out of Zoey’s truck, the glassy, terror ridden look on her face was replaced with something much more acceptable. Heat. Lust. Desire. All of it was right there for Zane to see, and he was more than willing to give V something else to think about.
Zane reached around her, unclasping the hook on the back of her bra before baring her breasts to his hungry gaze. She was stark naked, just the way he liked her. Without haste, he deftly removed the rest of his clothes before pulling V into the small shower with him. The water was scorching, just like the look in V’s vivid, whiskey colored eyes.
“Put your leg on the edge of the tub,” Zane directed her. “Now lean back against the wall.”
Dropping to his knees, Zane wasted no time burying his tongue in her pussy, inhaling her arousal and relishing the feel of her hands as they gripped his hair. Hard.
“Zane,” she moaned his name over and over, her fingers tightening in his hair as she pulled him in closer, giving him all the access he needed to spear her with his tongue, using his thumb to tease her clit until she was shaking.
“Fuck me. Oh, God, I need you to fuck me.”
Zane fully intended to fuck her, but he needed her ready for him. He didn’t want to hurt her, and he knew that just being in the shower required him to ready her that much more. He continued his assault on her clit, switching, using his tongue to drive her crazy while driving his thumb deep inside of her until she was no longer moaning, she was screaming his name, her hands sending blinding shards of pain straight through his scalp as she held on.
Fuck, he loved when she did that.
Standing to his full height, giving her just a second to return to him, Zane aligned his body with hers, lifted her leg over his hip and slammed deep inside of her. V’s eyes flew open, and she bit her lip, the walls of her sex gripping him painfully tight as he pulled back and then slammed forward once more. He wasn’t aiming for gentle, he needed to fuck her, to hear her scream again as he sent her over one more time.
When her body clamped down on his cock, her fingernails digging into his biceps, he knew she was close. “Look at me, V. Open your eyes.”
When she did, he thrust his hips harder, faster, pounding inside of her as though he was starving for her. Which he was. He found himself always wanting more of her, and he knew he would never get enough. Never.
“I want to hear you scream. I want your neighbor’s to know who is fucking you, V. Scream for me, baby.”
Slamming into her again, Zane felt his own orgasm brewing, and he knew this one was going to be even more severe than the last. They always were.
“V! I’m gonna come, baby!” Zane found her clit with this thumb, pressed hard and felt her pussy spasm around him at the same time he lost control, his release pulsing through him, filling her as she finally screamed his name.
Half an hour later, they were both climbing out of the shower, clean and thoroughly sated. Hopefully, he’d managed to keep her mind off of her panic. Not that he wanted her to have those attacks at all, but having sex with her in order to distract certainly was not a hardship. Not by a long shot.
“When you said I was going to Dallas, what exactly did you mean by that?” V asked him as she pulled on a flirty little sundress that had Zane pausing as he buttoned his jeans. Maybe he was moving too fast here. He might be taking them off again if she insisted on wearing that little white number because... FUCK! She looked good.
It took a second to remember what she had asked, but when he did, he turned away to find his shirt before answering.
“Exactly what I said. We�
��re all going up to Dallas early tomorrow morning. It’s a quick overnight trip, but Luke McCoy has agreed to let us explore the club.” Zane wasn’t going to go into more detail than that. Not that he had much more.
“I don’t know,” she said, running a comb through her hair.
Zane met her eyes in the bathroom mirror. “I need you to go with me, V.”
He didn’t want to go into the reasons why he wasn’t willing to leave her here alone either. If he could avoid telling her what happened last night, he intended to. At least for now.
“Why? I’m not a decision maker in this process,” V said matter-of-factly. “Zoey should be the one going.”
“She is. So are Kaleb, Sawyer and Travis.”
“She is?” V asked, noticeably not caring about the latter part of his explanation.
“Do you think Kaleb would leave her behind?”
“No.” V resumed combing her hair, not meeting his gaze. “I just don’t think I should go along.”
Zane moved closer, pressing against her back and wrapping his arms around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and smiled at her in the mirror. “I’m asking because I want you with me, V.” It was more than the truth.
More than not wanting to leave her alone while he was gone, Zane really wanted her with him. Hell, he wanted her with him at all times, and it had nothing to do with protecting her. He found he didn’t want to be away from her. Three months had been a hell of a long time and as far as he was concerned, he was still making up for lost time.
Not only that, Zane was going to get a firsthand glimpse of one of Texas’ most renowned fetish clubs, which he considered an essential part of preparing for what he wanted his club to be. The fact that Travis had agreed to let him manage one of the clubs still had Zane riding high. Hell, he hadn’t been back to work since he left the hospital and he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to now. Not with what was looming on the horizon for him. Working on cars and trucks no longer held the same appeal as it used to.
Speaking of... Zane made a mental note to stop by and talk to Ethan. He needed to see what he could do to help his brother out. Hiring another mechanic, if they hadn’t already, was probably the right way to go. He felt like a total ass for not doing it already.
“When are we leaving?” V’s question pulled Zane back to the present.
He smiled at her in the mirror, grateful that he hadn’t had to beg. He would have, but he wouldn’t have been happy about it.
“In an hour,” Zane told her, throwing out a time.
“What? You said we were leaving tomorrow morning.”
“And we are, but tonight we’re going to spend the night at my house.”
It was a three hour drive to Dallas, and he wasn’t sure when exactly his brothers planned to leave. He also needed to pick up one of Sawyer’s spare vehicles.
♀♂
V stood in her closet, staring at her clothes. What the hell was she supposed to wear to a fetish club? What the hell was a fetish club? It wasn’t like they had one in Coyote Ridge.
Yet.
She contemplated calling Zoey to ask, but she didn’t want to sound like a complete idiot. Except when it came to this, she was. Grabbing her cell phone from her dresser, V paced her bedroom, hearing Zane talking to someone in the other room. His cell phone vibrated shortly after she agreed to go, and he disappeared as soon as he answered.
“What am I supposed to wear to a fetish club?” V asked without preamble as soon as Zoey answered.
Her friend’s chuckle made her smile.
“I have no idea. I was about to call you and ask the very same thing.”
Well, crap. That didn’t help. V wandered back into her closet, flipping through her clothes. She had too many damn clothes.
“I guess it’s safe to assume you’ll be wearing a skirt or a dress, right?” Zoey’s voice was muffled, as though she were holding the phone between her cheek and shoulder, probably going through her own clothes if V had to guess.
Of course, she’d be wearing a dress. What the hell else would she wear to a place like that? “What kind of place is this?” V asked, trying to plan out an outfit in her head.
“The only thing I could get out of Kaleb was that it’s upscale and elegant. That’s about all he could get from Travis.”
Well, crap.
An hour later, V was packed, both her and Zoey agreeing on the outfits they were wearing the following night at to the club. When all was said and done, V had picked out both of their outfits, but that’s what she did best, and Zoey looked to her on many occasions for wardrobe help.
Zane hadn’t returned to her bedroom, but she no longer heard him on the phone either. Placing her suitcase on the floor, she lifted the handle and then rolled it behind her as she headed down the hall to the living room.
“You get everything you need?” he asked when she walked into the room.
He was standing by the front windows, the curtains pulled open as he stared out at the street. V glanced outside to see what he was looking at, but she didn’t see anything out of the norm. Nothing aside from the front yard where the unthinkable happened just a few months ago.
Turning away, V moved into the kitchen, checking the back door and grabbing two bottles of water from the refrigerator. She wasn’t thirsty necessarily, but she needed to keep herself busy or she was going to go down that dark path she’d been frequenting way too much lately. When she returned to the living room, Zane was now carrying her suitcase, the keys to her door in his hand.
“We need to stop by Sawyer’s and get one of his cars,” Zane said as he opened the front door and took a step back.
“For what?”
“As much as I love my Jeep, I don’t think it’s worthy of a trip like that.”
V didn’t respond, figuring his comment told her all she needed to know. As much as she tried to focus on his words and what he was telling her, just like so many other times for the last few months, V’s stomach began churning, her palms began sweating, her breathing accelerated, and she began to shake.
She hated this part. Absolutely detested it. She had no idea why she couldn’t walk in or out of her own house without going through this horrific moment of terror. It seemed to be even worse with Zane there. She almost could smell the fear from that day when she’d rushed outside finding him bloody and hanging on as four men continued to beat on him.
V had thought he was dead.
“I’ve got you, V,” Zane’s voice was close to her ear, his arms wrapped tight around her, his body warm against her chest. “Baby, I’ve got you.”
She hated this part. She hated the fact that she reminded him over and over about what happened, more so when she reacted like this, but for the life of her, she couldn’t control it.
“Come on, V. We’re going to walk out to my Jeep and drive to my house. And for the next couple of nights, you won’t have to think about anything else except for us and what interesting things we might find to do in a sex club.”
That got her attention, and she smiled, like he probably knew she would.
Taking his proffered hand, V linked her fingers with his, grabbed her purse and her cell phone and followed him outside. She tried to catch her breath, tried counting to one hundred as he locked up the house and walked her to the car carrying her suitcase. Once they were inside, he even buckled her seatbelt, before moving around to the driver’s side and starting the Jeep.
Ten minutes later, they were pulling down the long, winding dirt road that led to Zane’s house, and V was feeling much better. At least the episodes were getting shorter. She knew that was more thanks to Zane than for any other reason because if she were left to her own devices, she’d be a puddle of mess in her kitchen floor right about now.
Zane pulled the emergency brake, turned off the engine and then climbed out. V watched him as he moved around to her side before opening her door, kissing her firmly on the mouth with a smile before taking her hand and helping her out of the ca
r.
V glanced around, checking out Sawyer’s house. Because it was dark, thanks to the short winter days, she couldn’t see much more than the outline of the large house, and the enormous front porch that appeared to wrap around. It appeared to be a log cabin style structure, at least in the dark.
Before they made it to the steps, Sawyer was walking out onto the porch, wearing nothing but a pair of faded jeans and a smile. The man had a thing for being partially naked. V had heard more than enough stories about his frequent stunts out on Main Street. He seemed to have a thing for holding up signs and intrinsically stirring up gossip within the town. She was starting to believe it was Sawyer’s way of picking up women. Lots and lots of women.
Sawyer tossed something in Zane’s direction, and he caught it effortlessly, then glanced down into his hand.
When Zane let go of her hand, she kept her eye on him as he went back to the Jeep and grabbed the suitcase she brought with her. When she heard the trunk release in the sleek, black car parked beside her, she stared back at Sawyer.
“We’re taking the Corvette?” She was so surprised, she wondered how she even got the words out.
“We are,” Zane answered simply, grabbing her hand and pulling her around to the side of the car.
Once she was in, he shut the door, and V was overwhelmed by the scent of leather and something else. Some sort of carnauba wax if she had to guess, probably used on the interior. Whatever it was, it smelled rich and luxurious, sort of like the car itself.
V managed to sink into the seat, deciding right then and there that she was going to give herself over to this experience.
Who knew if she’d ever have the chance again.
Chapter Twenty One
♂♀
The following morning, Zane and V got up fairly early and went out for breakfast, before meeting up with his brothers at the construction offices where they laid out the plan for the night. According to him, Travis had to stick around that morning for a meeting about the resort that he hadn’t been able to change, but the rest of them were going to head up to Dallas around noon. Zane had been antsy to get out of town, so he told his brothers he’d just meet them there.
Zane (Alluring Indulgence) Page 20
