by Natalie Ann
“Caleb couldn’t get you a ride back?”
“I was just happy to get here. I wasn’t going to push my luck on the trip home.”
“You’re happy and I’m thrilled.” He looked at his watch. “Let me finish a few things up and then we can leave.”
“I know you’re busy. It’s fine if you need to work. I’ll go find some food and just hang out. I’ve got a book with me.”
“No way. Let’s go get some food in the cafeteria. I haven’t eaten yet, either. Then while we eat, I’ll finish what I can here and bring the rest home. I’ll probably have to do some work this weekend, if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is. I don’t expect you to drop everything because I showed up out of the blue.”
“But I want to. I’d planned on working late anyway to have a free weekend to spend some time with Bri and Seth.”
That hadn’t occurred to her. “Oh. Maybe I should have said something about coming. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this. I don’t want to take away from time with your siblings.”
“This actually works out better. You can meet everyone and be a buffer for us. I don’t know much about them and was afraid it would be awkward.”
“It could still be awkward, but I’ll help any way I can.”
“Perfect. Now let’s get food and then get the hell out of here.”
***
Talk about being taken by surprise. Zach couldn’t remember the last time someone managed to surprise him. Least of all a woman.
Correction, the last time he was surprised was by Amber. In Las Vegas when he woke up and found her gone. But this surprise was much better for sure.
They ate quickly in his office, he grabbed his laptop, and then they left.
“A red Jag. You own a red Jag?” she said.
“You knew I had a Jag,” he said.
“Not red. Could you get any flashier?”
“This from the woman who drives a red Mercedes turbo? I’d think it just shows what great taste we have.”
When she smiled and kissed him, he felt something he couldn’t remember ever feeling before. Something so deep in the pit of his stomach that was trying to break free.
“I guess we do. Though even I didn’t run around my office saying ‘this is my boyfriend, Zach’ when you came in.”
“We weren’t dating when I visited you. Now we are. So now everyone can know who you are.” He just wanted to show her off and didn’t understand why she thought it was odd.
“I get that. I just didn’t expect to hear ‘you poor girl’ so many times. What’s that all about?”
“Everyone loves me. Don’t listen to them.”
“You say that a lot, don’t you?”
“What?” he asked.
“That everyone loves you.”
He’d heard that before, but never thought much of it. It was always said as a joke and everyone knew it.
“What can I say? I’m liked.”
“I like you just fine,” she said.
“Just like?” he asked, then found himself holding his breath.
“If it was only like, then I’d still be in Lake Placid working right now.”
He reached his hand over and placed it on her thigh. “It’s always been more than like from my end.”
“Mine too,” she said.
And that feeling that was trapped so deep just started to wiggle loose.
Come Back
Amber looked at the gated community they’d entered and tried to hold her tongue, but couldn’t. “How do you know which house is yours?”
He turned his head and looked at her, then laughed. “There are house numbers on them.”
“And if there weren’t?” she asked, smiling back.
“Then I’d be lost like everyone else. Maybe I’d put a little gnome out front with my name on it. Or a pink flamingo. Anything to show it was mine.”
This neighborhood was the complete opposite of her small town street with old Victorian houses that had been converted into apartments. Her entire street pretty much held rental properties now. It was an area where younger single people lived that worked in town and didn’t want to worry about traveling far and were still close to the lake without having to pay the high price.
It wasn’t just that, though. There was charm and character in her neighborhood. This seemed like suburbia on steroids. There was barely twenty feet between each structure consisting of two townhouses. Every one was the same color. Oh wait, they turned onto another street and instead of yellow, the townhouses were blue.
“You picked this one because of the color?” she asked dryly.
“Of course. Yellow isn’t my first choice. I held out until a blue one was available.”
“Any other colors on another street?”
“Nope. Yellow and blue right now.”
“Do they all have the same layout inside?” she asked when they pulled in his driveway, then waited for the garage door to open.
“I’m pretty sure they do. Or close to it. Mine is a two-bedroom, but some are three-bedrooms. Same square footage I think, just smaller rooms.”
They got out of his car, and he hit the button to close the garage door, then opened the door to his home.
The first thing she noticed was the lack of color inside, too. Everything was a shade of gray in his kitchen. From the counters to the walls to the stainless steel appliances.
“I know, it’s boring,” he said, watching her face. “You can say it and I won’t be offended.”
“I just didn’t think you’d be the person to have such a boring house. It’s not like you have a boring personality.”
He laughed, then tweaked her hair. “I’m not here very often,” he said, dropping his keys in a bowl on the counter. The place was neat; she’d give him that much. It’s not like he was expecting company, either. “I’ll give you the brief tour.”
Brief was right. It was big, but open, so she saw everything at once. His kitchen opened up into a formal dining room, which opened up into a living room. No walls, one straight flow from front to back with French doors that led to a deck and yard a tiny Chihuahua would feel claustrophobic in. And, of course, there was a mirror image of another townhouse beyond that.
Up the stairs, he showed her a massive master suite that was more than half the size of the downstairs, then another large bedroom with a bath. He had a bed and desk set up in there, and there was still room for a treadmill and free weights.
“That took all of about one minute to show you my house.”
“There’s no getting lost in here, that’s for sure.”
“What,” he said, “no games of hide and seek?”
She turned to him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him quickly. “I wouldn’t want to hide from you anyway.”
“Not again, right?”
He was looking at her funny, and she finally caught on. “No, never again. You know where to find me now anyway.”
“If you hadn’t lied to me about your last name, I would have found you sooner. Even with the wrong last name, I would have found you eventually.”
“You think?” she asked, kissing his neck now. His confidence was pretty sexy. Between the way his office acted when they met her and that statement just then, all her nervous wondering if he had women on the side were finally wiped away completely. He wasn’t someone who had women everywhere, she could see it now and she believed it. She was believing in him.
“I know. I can find anyone with enough time and energy.”
“Why don’t you put your energy to a different use right now?” she asked, moving her hands to his shirt and unbuttoning the top one.
He shifted her and picked her up in his arms, then brought her to his bed. The move surprised her as she wasn’t a lightweight by any means and felt a bit unsteady in his arms. “Don’t you dare drop me.”
“Thanks for shrinking my manhood.”
She reached her hand down and cupped him. “Nothing small there.”
“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better,” he said, dropping her a few inches onto the mattress, then coming down on top of her and smothering any words she might have voiced with his lips.
“I’ve got lots of ways to make someone feel better. I’m a trained professional, you know.”
“You told me you weren’t a call girl. Were you lying in Vegas? What other secrets do you have that I don’t know about?”
It was said as a joke, but her heart still started to hammer away. “Really, Zach. Stop talking and let’s break your bed in the way we’ve broken mine in lately.”
Must have been the right response, because he kissed her again and got right to work. No more talking, no more stressing, and time to just move.
He knew what he was doing. He knew right where to go, what to touch, and how to make her feel.
Her clothes were removed swiftly, along with his own, and when she thought he was going to slide right in, he stopped. Instead he grabbed her hands and locked them over her head with a steel grip she’d never felt before. Guess he was stronger than she thought. It was slightly terrifying and an extreme amount of exciting.
“What are you doing?” she asked while he continued to look at her. His brown eyes just pierced right into her soul, the heat of it warming her fast.
“Holding you down for the moment.”
“I see that. Any reason why? Are you afraid I might run? I can assure you I won’t.”
He kissed her softly, a total contradiction to the death grip on her wrists. Maybe even the one on her heart. Then as the kiss continued, his fingers loosened, releasing her hands, allowing her to wrap them around his neck.
“I just needed to make sure this was real,” he said. “That you were here in my room. In my bed. That you came to me.”
The way he said it. The fierce sound of his voice. The way it cracked with emotion. Something more was going on with him right now. For once, she was too afraid to ask. Afraid she was finally seeing the real Zach. The one that wanted her more than she thought she could ever be wanted.
“I’m here with you. Naked in your room. Under you and waiting for you to give me a reason to come back again and again.”
He stopped and stared at her, his eyes a bit glossy, his grin as wide as the ocean. “You’ll come back. I’m like an addiction.”
She laughed, she had no choice. Definitely no lack of confidence, and she wondered why that crossed her mind at times.
“Will I need treatment for this addiction?”
“Never. It’s the type of addiction that makes you feel alive.”
Since her pulse was throbbing and her heart was racing, she knew he was telling the truth. “Then get moving and prove it to me.”
He didn’t need to be told twice, scooting down her body and stopping at her breasts. He touched, he kissed, he licked, and he bit. There wasn’t much she could do or say as he went to town.
If there was one thing Zach was good at, it was being thorough. And he thoroughly proved he could bring her to a point of begging if he didn’t move onto another target and move on soon.
But just in case, she threaded her fingers through his hair and gave it a gentle tug. Getting the hint, he moved onward and then downward. Right to where she was the throbbing the hardest and fastest.
And that quick slick tongue of his went right to work as she was hoping. Not stopping and not easing up in the least. Because once wasn’t enough, he had to do it again. He had to bring here there twice, just gorging himself and making her scream.
“Are your neighbors home?” she asked, gasping for breath.
“Why, do you want to invite them over too?”
She snorted. “No. I don’t want you to get any complaints about the noise.”
“No worries,” he said, nibbling on her inner thighs. “They work late most nights. Make as much noise as you want.”
“Good to know,” she said, sucking in her breath when his lips went to her sensitive skin again. My God, he never let up. “Zach?”
“Yes?” he asked, his hands moving all around her.
“Could you move to the next phase or are you trying to break some kind of record right now with the amount of orgasms I can have before you have one?”
“I hadn’t planned on setting a record, but now maybe I will. You wanted me to give you a reason to come back, so I am.”
“It was a joke,” she said, her voice rising. He must’ve been serious because his mouth went right back to her again. Okay, she was in heaven, there was no doubt, but even heaven had a threshold and Zach was starting to cross it.
At least this time he did stop before she came. He just left her on the edge, left her wanting to scream at him to finish what he started. When she heard him opening the condom she almost breathed a sigh of relief.
Except he didn’t enter her. No, he went back with his mouth. The urge to growl was enormous.
“What are you doing?” she asked, arching her back.
“I think it’s pretty obvious,” he mumbled around kisses. “I’m making you come again. Then when your muscles are throbbing and squeezing, I’m going to enter you hard. You’ll grab me tight and hold on and I won’t have to do much more than feel the pulsing all around me. Just sucking me into you, and holding me there.”
The image his words caused filled her head, catapulting her over the edge, her hips lifting, her hands wanting to hold him there. He didn’t give her a chance though. Instead, he slid up her body and inside like he promised he was going to do.
It was tighter than it should have been with as slick as she was, but her muscles were almost rebelling, then releasing and grabbing hold. He didn’t move once; he didn’t have to. No, her body did all the work while she lay there and felt every pulse he released himself.
He’s Old
The next morning, they were up bright and early, with Zach more hyper than she’d seen him before. She didn’t know that was even possible “Do you have ants in your pants?” she asked when he poured her coffee, then his own. “Jumping beans, maybe?”
“No. Why?”
“No reason,” she said, laughing over the rim of her cup.
“Sorry. I can’t wait to surprise my grandparents with you today.”
“You didn’t tell them I was here?”
“When would I have had the time? You were awfully demanding last night. I was so worn out I just fell asleep.”
“Sure, you keep telling yourself it was all about me last night. I think I remember something about you not believing I was really here and you had to keep proving it to yourself.”
“You loved every minute of it. Admit it.”
“You can’t tell by the slight limp to my walk this morning?”
“I can massage it for you,” he said, winking.
“Maybe later. But right now, we need fuel and I want to meet your family.”
“They’re going to want to meet you, too.”
Driving through yet another development, Amber wondered if there was anything else in Richmond. Though this one did seem to have more character. The houses were newer, but not mirror images of each other. Different sizes, materials, and colors, and all modern.
“How long have your grandparents lived here?”
“A little less than ten years. I’ve been working for Nick since he started his company about ten years ago. The first thing I did was buy this house for them and move them here. It was annoying with all the construction going on at first, but they were happy to be by me.”
“Did you live with them?”
“No. They wanted me to. They knew I had to take a mortgage out for them and it would put me in a bind to carry two house payments, but I needed my space and they deserved their own.”
She wasn’t surprised he put his grandparents first. After college, most people bought themselves a new car when they got their first job, but not Zach. He bought his grandparents a house.
“It looks like a big house for two people,” she said when they pulled in fr
ont of a brick ranch.
“Not as big as you think. Three bedrooms, two baths, but nice big rooms. Their master is on one side of the house, the spare bedrooms the other.”
“So plenty of space if you wanted to stay.”
“Yeah. But I moved in with Nick. He’d gotten his own condo and we split the costs. It was kind of like living at college still. When we weren’t in the office, we were home working, so it was really the best setup.”
She couldn’t imagine the amount of time and effort it had to take to get a business off the ground like NB Innovations. Especially for two twenty-somethings.
“Do you have partial ownership of NB Innovations?” she asked suddenly.
He turned his head and smiled. “That’s a secret.”
“So you do,” she said, grinning back and starting to fully realize the extent of his dedication and time with Nick. To Nick.
He just winked at her and got out of the car. “Just know that it’s more than a job to me.”
She got that. She felt the same way about her job and the stakes weren’t as high as what Zach had. “So that’s why you’ve got so much free rein to come and go when you want?” she asked.
“I put my time in.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close as they walked to the front door. “Don’t say a word just yet, okay?”
Since he was almost bouncing on his toes, she just nodded.
He opened the front door and walked in. There was no one around, but noises could be heard from the kitchen. “Grandma, are you making me breakfast?”
“In the kitchen, Zach. All I ever do is feed you.”
Amber heard the laughter in his grandmother’s voice and followed behind him, his excitement contagious.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said.
“I wish you’d stop bringing me things,” his grandmother said.
“Oh, I’m taking this back with me,” he said, laughing. He stepped into the kitchen and pulled her next to him. “Grandma, this is Amber.”
Zach’s grandmother stopped moving the spoon she was mixing with and just stared at her. She was average height, but built nice and sturdy. Nothing like a grandmother should be in Amber’s eyes. There was a strength in her stance and eyes, and she started to see where Zach got it from.
