by Cox, Zara
“We’d love to,” she responded.
Zach’s hand tightened around her waist. When she glanced at him, his face was still expressionless. “You sure about this, Peaches?” he murmured.
She sent him a thousand-watt smile. “Absolutely.” She took a seat on the last remaining lounger and slid her hand onto Zach’s thigh when he sat down next to her. Hard muscles bunched in gratifying reaction to her touch.
Olga, dressed in a silver sequined micro-dress that left very little to the imagination cleavage-and-leg-wise, stood. Mike’s smile looked a little strained as he watched his girlfriend sashay over to Zach, card in hand.
Zach’s face remained the same as he took the card from her. Again he glanced at Bethany. She felt her smile slipping but held her nerve.
Zach shrugged and opened the card. “How many billionaires does it take to screw in a light bulb?” A tiny smirk twitched his mouth.
Olga let out a tinkling laugh that grated on Bethany’s nerves. “Silly question.” She stared straight at Zach. “I say he should forget the light bulb. And screw me.”
Whoa.
Zach barely blinked. “Your turn,” he said to her.
She pretended to tilt her head in thought. “Well, how important is the light is to him? Because if he has me, he won’t need to worry about the darkness.”
Lame. So fucking lame. And yet, the change that came over Zach’s face made her want to scream with happiness.
He flung the card away and pressed the screen button on his seat. “Sorry, Olga. She wins.”
Mike had a full-blown smirk in place as the screens descended. Olga looked like she was chewing nails.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Zach caught her as Bethany flung herself at him before the screen had fully descended.
“Baby, what the hell are you trying to do to me?” he grated out.
“I saw your face. You liked what I said,” she murmured as she settled herself in his lap, her thighs bracketing him and her hands sliding into his hair.
He clamped his hands on her hips and pressed her flesh.
“Like it? You fucking turned me inside out.”
She made a soft sound and rubbed herself against him. He hardened instantly. “I like turning you inside out.”
“I know. Any reason why you want to prove that right now?” he asked, although he could guess the answer. Dark satisfaction shot through him.
“I wanted to put that Siberian bitch in her place. She’s been eyeing you like you’re Beluga caviar on her cracker.”
He laughed and cupped her firm rump. “I hate caviar.”
She jerked back and looked into his eyes. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Good.” She undulated her hips and his mind reeled. Her dress rode up a little higher and the scent of her arousal hit him like a blow to the heart.
“Bethany?”
“Hmm?”
“If you want me inside you, we have to return to our suite. I’m not fucking you with people listening in, baby. Your pleasure sounds belongs to my ears alone. But it looks like you have something to prove so have at it. But I say when to stop.”
Her beautiful eyes were stormy with need when she stared down at him. “I thought you didn’t fuck where you work.”
“I’m making an exception for you. Besides, when I’m with you, it’s not work.”
“So, heavy petting is allowed right here?” Her hands drifted down his chest and over his stomach.
“Hmm.’
She put her hand on his hard crotch and squeezed him. Intrigued by how far she would go, he watched her slowly slide down his zipper and take out his rigid cock. His eyelashes fluttered but his eyes remained on hers, eager to see her face, watch her pleasure as she pleasured him.
She pumped him a couple of times and Zach gritted his teeth and swallowed a groan. He was unraveling, already spinning out of control from her touch alone.
Her miniscule smile told him she knew her effect on him and was pleased about it. She gripped him harder, worked him faster, her fingers warm rings of exquisite torture. Her lips parted and her pink tongue darted out to wet her lower lip. Another groan ballooned in his chest.
Christ.
“Baby…” His gaze dropped to his cock in her hand and he lost his train of thought. He was agonizingly hard and growing desperate by the second.
“Zach,” her voice was thick with need. He speared a hand through her loose hair and dragged his fingers over her scalp the way he knew she loved.
“Peaches, do you crave me inside you?”
“Always,” she breathed.
“Time to return to our suite?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes.”
He grinned at the reluctance with which she released him. Gingerly, he zipped himself up and dropped his shirt tails over his crotch.
She stood and sent him a saucy grin. “That’s not going to keep them from guessing what we’ve been doing,” she said.
He let out a frustrated growl. “Next time you decide to mark your territory, pick a quick getaway that doesn’t involve a dozen guests and two flights of stairs between us and a bed.”
She mock frowned. “Should I be worried that you think I’ll need to mark you often and consistently?”
He smiled. “I love being marked by you. Even though blue balls could become an issue if we don’t time it properly.” He grimaced at the agony tearing through his groin and pressed the button to lift the screen.
She caressed soft fingers down his cheek. “Oh, you poor baby. I promise I’ll make it better very soon.”
Her sheer enjoyment of his discomfort made his teeth grit but he couldn’t stop the pure vein of happiness from growing in his chest as he watched her beautiful face and breathtaking smile.
This woman knocked his numb heart into kicking life. And he intended to do whatever it took to keep that life force beating. A return to his previous existence, to that soulless numbness, was unbearable.
***
Rome was hot and gloriously culture-filled. And the spot Karim chose to launch his first salvo.
Zach saw the first email from his lawyers half an hour after landing. He barely managed to contain his rage as he read the clear threat in the email.
Beside him in the limo Bethany arranged to ferry the IL guests to his hotel, she turned sharply, her senses tuned perfectly to his mood.
“Something wrong?”
“Yes.” He stopped for a moment, marveled at how easy it was to talk to her now. To share his joy and his pain. “The zombies are sabre-rattling.”
Worry clouded her eyes. She put a hand on his thigh and he covered it with his own. “Explain.”
He looked out the window at the passing view. Early evening sunlight glinted over the Coliseum’s ruins. Shorts and T-shirt clad tourists aimed their phone cameras at the ruins and for a moment he yearned to be one of them, with no worries or bitter past or threats of losing the one precious thing in his life.
He refocused on Bethany. “He wants me to leave the non-disclosure alone.”
“Or?” she pressed.
“Or he’ll unearth a few skeletons.”
“Your skeletons?”
“Yes.” He sighed and passed a hand over his face. He needed a shave. Badly. But Bethany had protested when he’d threatened to shave this morning. Her reason for wanting him to leave it unshaved brought a fleeting smile to his face and a hard kick to his groin. His Peaches loved a good and rough Princess Treatment. And he had no intention of denying her. He refocused when her hand tightened on his. “I never told you why I cut my mother out of my life.”
Her breath caught. “No, you didn’t.”
A wave of shame slammed into his gut and spread outward. “I have a vague recollection of my father. Nothing concrete. But even before he walked when I was four, I knew something wasn’t right with our family unit.” He stopped and sucked in a breath. “There were too many uncles drifting in and out, you know?”
She made a
distressed sound and the wave of shame crept higher, threatened to engulf him.
“At first, I would just stay in my room. No one bothered me and I didn’t go hungry or anything like that. I just recognized very quickly that staying in my room was the best thing all round.”
“Then I got older. Things began to make more sense.” She winced and he realized his fingers had tightened. He loosened his grip immediately. “I couldn’t avoid the truth. And she didn’t really bother to hide it from me once I hit puberty.”
“Are you…are you saying that your mother was--”
“A glorified prostitute? Yes. And the thing was, she wasn’t doing it for the money. She just did it because…” he shrugged and noticed his whole body was coil-tense, “she enjoyed it. My mother enjoyed giving herself freely to men just for the hell of it. I asked her once why she did it.” His jaw locked for an instant, so tight he was stunned when something didn’t break. “She told me she enjoyed the attention. Of course, she couldn’t be like every other mother and join the fucking PTA or book club. She let other men use her. Because she enjoyed it. When I was old enough to stay away without supervision I did. I spent hours at the pool and only came home when it was strictly necessary.”
“And your father?”
The long-buried scab ripped raw. “He wasn’t interested enough to stick around when I was a kid. I have no interest in getting to know him now. Kudos to the man, though. He paid enough child support to allow my mother to support her exemplary lifestyle.” He couldn’t stop the bitterness from spilling out. “You know, sometimes I hated him for that? For supporting us from wherever the hell he was? I thought that maybe if he didn’t, my mother would’ve been forced to get a real job.”
“Zach…I’m so sorry…God, I don’t know what to say.” This time her fingers gripped him hard enough to hurt..
He risked a glance at her and saw sympathy, concern and a sheen of tears in her eyes. But no judgment.
No judgment.
His breath fractured out of him and he swallowed hard to keep from losing it.
She was so giving. So damned generous, with her body and her soul. She was currently guarding her heart due to his intense stupidity but he intended to do everything in his power to win it back.
“You’re still here. That’s all that matters.”
Silence followed, soothing the jagged edges of his confession.
“So, Karim is threatening you with your mother’s past?”
Bitterness soured his mouth. “Yes, he’ll leak a story unless I let the Farrah issue go. I’ve refused. As for my mother, I wish the past tense applied where she’s concerned.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean she’s still…”
“She never stopped. Not when I threatened to leave and never come back. And not when I made good on the threat.”
She leaned closer and slid her arm around his waist. Her nose nuzzled his throat and he closed his eyes and reveled in the softness and goodness of her.
After several minutes, he opened his eyes and looked down at her. “Do you have a question for me today?” Again, he noted that this - letting her in, was getting easier.
Her smile lit her up from the inside and his brain fried. God, how was it possible she had no idea how gorgeous she was? His thumb traced her lower lip and he watched her eyelids flutter with pleasure.
“I had a question for you. You just answered it.”
Surprise jerked through him. “You wanted to know about my mother?”
“I wanted to know about your childhood.”
He nodded, then breathed in deep. “And are you okay knowing there won’t be any fond family Thanksgiving dinners?”
Her mouth brushed his throat again. “I’m okay knowing we’ll have Thanksgiving dinner together some day.”
He splayed not too steady fingers through her hair and angled her face to his. “I intend for us to have many. Get used to the idea.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you sassing me, Peaches?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Her smile indicated otherwise. He started to lower his head, to taste those sweet lips that had the power to wreck his world and put it back together again. Her question stopped him.
“So what’s going to happen now with Karim?”
Renewed anger churned through his gut. “I won’t let him threaten me. I won’t let him threaten us.”
“Zach…”
“Let me worry about it, baby.”
“I don’t want you to go through this alone. The alpha thing is sexy and all but there are some things I will insist on sharing.”
“Understood. Now enlighten me as to what else you think is sexy…”
The atmosphere had lightened considerably by the time they arrived at The Indigo Palazzo Roma in the heart of the Italian city just off Piazza Navona.
His uncompromising business ethic coupled with his drive for perfection in all things usually worked well to charm and impress his IL guests.
But for the rest of the afternoon as he watched Bethany swing into work mode and seek to deliver the very best experience to each guest, he surmised that perhaps on this occasion, his guests were enthralled for a different reason.
She put each guest at ease while maintaining a distance that made the Neanderthal in him stop wanting to rip things apart. Their dinner at La Pergola, the three-Michelin star restaurant came with a wine list that made even the Wall Street CEO and self-confessed seasoned connoisseur’s eyes bulge.
Zach sat back and watched her effortlessly charm his guests. When a few of them drifted off after coffee to admire the rooftop view of Rome at night, he stayed at his table and allowed himself an unashamed view of his woman. Her dark gold silk-clad body had been teasing him all evening. The material had especially clung to her ass in a way that made his groin burn every time she walked away from him, which had been often, much to his irritation.
He finally managed to corner her an hour after they arrived at Gilda, the exclusive club, where she’d arranged after-dinner chill-out drinks.
She smiled when he turned her into his arms on the dance floor. “Having fun?”
“Yes. What can I say? I enjoy my work. Did you see Jerry Daniels’ face when the sommelier brought out the wine list? I thought he was going to have a heart attack.” Her eyes sparkled and Zach thought she’d never looked more beautiful.
“You knew he was a wine collector?”
She raised a perfect eyebrow. “You doubt that I did my homework?”
“I never doubt you, Peaches.”
Her breath shortened and her eyes dropped to his mouth. Flames fanned into roaring life and his cock followed suit. “How much longer until we can ditch this circus?”
She laughed. “It’s your circus.”
“Exactly. So I’m calling it a success and you’re clocking off for the night.” He stood and held out his hand. “I can tell you’re horribly jet-lagged. You need a bed asap.”
She rolled her eyes but slid her hand into his when he stepped off the dance floor. Her knee-length dress caressed her body as he strode over to the group and ensured everyone’s need had been catered to for the evening. Then he watched her expertly hand over the reins to the Italian assistant and hostesses she’d been working with all afternoon.
By the time they reached his limo, he could barely keep his hands off her. He had her on her back and panty-less within seconds.
He was inside her a minute later. He held himself deep inside her and watched pleasure darken her eyes.
“To what do I owe this keen attention, Savage?” She licked the pad of the thumb he traced over her mouth.
He pulled out and slowly slid back into her snug heat, burying himself so deep, he earned himself a sweet, lusty groan. “What can I say, Peaches? Watching you work made me hot for you.”
Her mouth closed over his tongue and sucked it deep. Then she reached down to where they were joined and boldly cupped his balls. “Hmm.”
His vision blurred. “Fuck
!”
He muttered, groaned, then finally shouted that word before they got to his hotel.
***
Bethany wasn’t sure what woke her. But the sense of déjà vu hit with frightening force. Only this time, Zach was in a deep sleep, his head on the pillow just above her with both arms tangled around her in a back to front unbreakable hold. She listened for several minutes before she forced herself to breathe slowly, regulate her heartbeat.
Putting it down to strange sounds in a strange city, she was just starting to drift back into sleep when she heard it.
Her tablet. Sending out an alert meant for her. Sheena had sent her several during the evening and probably hadn’t stopped to work out the time difference.
The temptation to leave it till morning was strong.
But as she found herself reaching toward the bedside table for her iPad Mini, that lingering sense of impending danger grew stronger.
The headline in the email from the unknown sender hollowed out her stomach. But it was the paragraph that followed that made her blood ran cold.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Savage Sets His Sight On Another Innocent.
Shall we pity Bethany Green or be bug-eyed with envy? New York events organiser Bethany Green has landed herself the big fish in the form of Zach Savage. But before women the world over start rending their garments, we advise caution.
Savage has a history of turbulent relationships, one of which ended in tragedy, intrigue and a cover up. Sources previously close to a deceased ex have further revealed a major cover up including missing hospital records after said ex’s death.
So before you lament the loss of this billionaire bachelor, perhaps you should count yourself lucky to have escaped his dangerous snare…
Bethany swallowed and read the email again, trying to keep the icy churning in her stomach at bay.
Missing hospital records…a cover up…
She noticed the attachment to the email and activated it. The photo that opened up made her heart stop.
At least now she had a face to go with the woman who has made such an impact on Zach.
Farrah Nisa was gorgeous. The kind of hurt-your-eyes stunning that men like Zach Savage attracted with minimum effort. Zach hadn’t been exaggerating there.
