He stood up when she did, and she turned to walk toward the door but he stopped her.
“Angel face?”
“Yes?”
“One more thing,” he said, pulling her into his arms and giving her the kiss she’d been craving all night.
Seven
She was so cute, and it had been pretty hard to resist kissing her. He’d been thinking about it all night as he’d watched her and her family interact. He’d grown up in a reasonably supportive household but what he’d seen at the Collins family dinner table was something he’d truly never experienced. There was real love in the family and though he and his siblings had a close bond, their father had always encouraged them to compete against each other. To prove themselves to him that they were the best of the Bisset children.
Darien had reacted by smoking a lot as a teenager and then just skipping the family business, to leave room for Logan who was a lion and had no trouble going in for the kill when he sensed a weakness. That had been the one reason why growing up Zac hadn’t wanted to go to the office with his older brothers. As much as he’d wanted August Bisset’s approval, he never wanted to have to cut down Darien or Logan to get it.
Kissing Iris made him rethink the entire agreement he’d made with her. He didn’t want to be bound by a contract, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he was pretending to be something he wasn’t. It didn’t sit well with him. He lifted his head to stare down into her face. Her eyes were closed but as soon as he broke the kiss, they flew open.
She put her hand on her lips and then she stepped back. “Did I do something wrong? I’ll tell you in all honesty I’m not that great at this. I mean, the posing and looking like I’m enjoying a romantic embrace I can handle but the real—”
He put his finger over her mouth to stem the words that she couldn’t seem to control. “Angel face, you’re so damned good that you’re making me regret I only agreed to be your man temporarily.”
She tipped her head to the side and smiled up at him. “Really?”
He nodded.
“You’re way sweeter than I bet you let anyone see,” she said.
“I’m not sweet,” he said. “That’s lust talking.”
“Lust? Is it because you’ve been at sea for so long?” she asked.
It was odd to see the woman who had negotiated with him in the boardroom like she was preparing to win Shark Tank be so shy when it came to personal relationships. Then again, he knew that everyone dealt with intimacy in his or her own way. Normally he liked to make it a competition because he wasn’t comfortable letting his guard down.
But he was quickly coming to realize that he couldn’t make this a game. She wasn’t the kind of player who would be able to handle this. And that changed everything for him. She wasn’t what he’d expected; even dinner at her family’s home hadn’t been what he was used to. Maybe he should change his thinking and acknowledge that she wasn’t going to fit in any mold he had for her.
She wasn’t just the lifestyle guru with the perfect image and confidence to boot. She was real and that enchanted him as nothing else could. Maybe she was his siren, tempting him with something so outside of his normal world that he would unknowingly crash against the rocks to get to her.
But at this moment, he didn’t care. His mind might be trying to send out a warning, but his hard-on wasn’t having any part of it. He pulled her back into his arms. “This has nothing to do with our deal.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want you regardless of that contract,” he said. Also, he realized that as a Bisset he wasn’t about to let someone else be in charge. He was a bit chagrined to realize he had more traits in common with his father than he wanted to admit.
“I don’t... Will you still honor the bargain no matter what the outcome tonight?” she asked.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “What kind of men have you—never mind—I really don’t want to know. I’m not going to back out now.”
“Okay,” she said. “I want to say one more time—”
“Don’t. Forget about whatever you’ve experienced in the past, Iris. We’ve never been together before and I feel like we should both be ready for whatever comes our way.”
“Whatever,” she said, and he saw a glimpse of the control freak he’d witnessed in the boardroom cross her expression. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
He realized thinking wasn’t going to help her relax. She wanted him; he’d felt it in her kiss. But she was afraid to move forward.
He pulled her back inside his house and lifted her off her feet, carrying her down the hall to the living room. The room was in shadow when he put her on her feet in front of the French doors that led to the patio.
She tipped her head back as he kept his arms around her waist. “Okay, Google, play ‘They Can’t Take That Away’ by Billie Holiday.”
The home assistant acknowledged his request and the music started. He pulled Iris more fully into his arms, dancing with her in front of the doors that led to the backyard. He held her loosely because she wasn’t the kind of woman who responded to grasping, greedy passion, at least at this point. There might come a time later in their relationship—he stopped himself from continuing with that thought. Their relationship had an expiration date. It would end. So there was no point in holding anything back.
He could be himself and he could enjoy all of her because there wasn’t any expectation that they’d have more than this time together.
He lowered his head and their eyes met. Hers were dreamy, and for the first time since he’d met her, she seemed to be relaxed. Her guard was completely lowered, and he realized that she was probably thinking the same way as he was. That this moment was all they had. There were no consequences.
He put his thumb on her chin and tipped her head back a bit more so he could kiss her again. He swayed to the music and tried to ignore the white-hot passion that was making his blood flow heavier in his veins and hardening his erection. He tried not to focus on the fact that he could tell she wasn’t wearing a padded bra because he felt her hard nipples pressed against his chest when she wrapped her arms around his neck and went up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
He tried to pretend that this was like every other first time he’d been with a woman, but his gut and his heart warned him that it wasn’t. His mind wasn’t engaged, had been shut down, and consequences and repercussions weren’t a consideration. All he wanted was this night with Iris and to squeeze every bit of emotion from it and her that he could.
* * *
Iris had to get out of her own way, and once she was in Zac’s arms as he danced her around the living room, she sort of did. Part of it was the magic of Billie Holiday—the song was so old-fashioned and such a standard that Iris felt no pressure to be overtly sexy or to bring it. But the other part was just about being with Zac. He sang under his breath as he danced them around the living room; his tone was a bit off-key, but it was endearing. Something less than perfect in the breathtakingly sexy man.
When he kissed her, she forgot everything. She stopped worrying about making sure she kept her stomach sucked in and didn’t breathe too heavily. She forgot all the tips she’d read about how to turn a man on and just relaxed. Her skin was wonderfully sensitized and her heart felt like it was beating a bit too fast. When she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, going up on tiptoe to deepen the kiss, she felt the brush of his erection against her stomach. She rubbed against him and would have pulled back, but he made this groan deep in his throat and then reached down to cup her butt, lifting her higher against him so that she felt the tip of his hard-on against her feminine center.
She’d never felt anything like this with a man before. Sure, when she masturbated, she could get there but this was the first time that a kiss and a touch had completely overwhelmed her.
She suspected that Zac was slowly leadi
ng her along and she didn’t care because it felt so good, so right and exactly like she’d always thought sex should be. It wasn’t tongues shoved down her throat or hands that seemed to grasp and pinch her breasts just a little too hard. It was soft caresses and a kiss that she never wanted to end.
He shifted her in his arms as the music changed. It was that song “You Belong To Me.” Her heartbeat increased, a warning briefly going off in her mind that he couldn’t belong to her, not for long. But she shushed it. The last thing she wanted was to start thinking and lose the feelings that Zac was stirring to life inside of her. When he spun them around and lifted her into his arms again, the world tilted and shifted until she was lying on her back on the couch.
“Still happy to be here with me?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Good. If I do anything that makes you uncomfortable, tell me,” he said.
“Same.”
He laughed in that big kind way of his and she couldn’t help smiling back. “Honestly, there isn’t anything you could ask me to do that I wouldn’t.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” she said, but she knew she wouldn’t dare let herself ask him for anything too risqué.
“I hope you take it up,” he said. “But not tonight.”
He undid the buttons on his shirt and shrugged out of it, putting it on the coffee table before he sat down on the couch, brushing against her hips. He reached for her sandals and removed first one and then the other.
She reached out to touch his chest. It was covered in a soft mat of blond hair that tickled her fingers when she ran them over his hot skin. His muscles underneath were hard and he bunched them as she touched him. She ran her finger around his nipple and watched it harden under her caress and felt her own nipples do the same.
She drew her finger down the center of his chest and felt the jagged, raised skin that indicated a scar. She leaned closer but in the low lighting there was no way to really see it. She wanted to know more about it, but not now. She let her finger drift lower, following the line of hair that tapered as it approached his belly button. He had the kind of washboard abs that she’d only ever seen in magazines or on TV.
He sat very still and let her explore to her heart’s content, but she noticed his erection growing bigger as her touch neared his cock. Her fingers tingled with the need to touch him, but what if she did and he suddenly got impatient, bringing all of this exploring to an end?
She sighed and lowered her hand, tracing the fly of his dress slacks and feeling the hard ridge underneath. He canted his hips forward, thrusting his erection against her fingers, and she curved them around his shaft, stroking him through his pants.
She felt hot and creamy between her legs and she knew she wanted him. She also felt hollow and empty like she wanted him inside of her. It didn’t matter that these magical feelings would disappear when that happened. She still craved the feel of him inside her. She shifted around on the couch, reached up under the skirt of her dress and removed her panties.
She tried to straddle him, but he stopped her.
“We aren’t in a hurry,” he said.
“I am,” she admitted. “If we wait too long, this feeling might go away.”
She moved awkwardly, because once she started talking, the self-consciousness she thought she’d banished was back. She tried to straddle his lap and lost her balance, falling backward. But he caught her in his arms and lifted her, his biceps flexing under her hands as he settled her on his lap.
“I’ve got you,” he said.
She couldn’t say for certain if there was a hint of promise in his words or if she was just imagining it, but she decided to just follow her gut and take it for what she wanted it to be. Take him for what she wanted him to be. The kind of lover she’d always dreamed of finding but never had.
She tunneled her fingers through his thick blond hair and lowered herself, taking his mouth the way she wished he’d take her.
* * *
Zac slid his hands up under Iris’s skirt and cupped her naked butt as she deepened their kiss. He’d wanted to take this slow, wanted to do this at a pace that worked for her, but at this point he was past thinking about timing. He wanted her and each breath he took sharpened his desire.
He was so hot and hard that he felt like he was going to explode unless he got inside her. He drew her down against his hard-on, thrusting up against her, frustrated by the layers of fabric separating them. He reached between them, pushing her skirt up and out of his way, the backs of his fingers brushing against her warmth. She moaned and lifted her head. He touched her again, holding her with his palm, and she closed her eyes, her head falling back as she gyrated against his hand. When he touched her most intimate flesh, her hands on his shoulders tightened. She made little circular motions with her hips and he adjusted his touch until she was moving more rapidly against him. He shifted his hand lower and entered her with one finger and she threw her head back as he did and moaned much louder this time.
He let her ride his hand until she screamed his name and seemed to come against him. She collapsed against his chest and he held her for a moment before she reached between them and lowered his zipper. He stopped her with his hand on top of hers. If she touched his naked cock, he wasn’t going to be able to think of anything but taking her and making her his.
“Are you on the pill?” he asked.
She hesitated and swallowed hard. “Yes. Of course.”
“Okay, good. I’ve got condoms in the other room,” he said. “Want me to use one?”
She chewed her lower lip between her teeth.
“I know it’s not romantic but a minute of talking now is worth it,” he reassured her.
“Yes, I would prefer you use one.”
“Wrap your legs around my waist and your arms around my shoulders.”
She did it and he stood up, putting his hands on her backside to keep her in place as he walked to the bedroom that was down the hall. He went to the bed and sat down so that she was still on his lap.
“They are in the nightstand.”
She reached over and flicked on the lamp first and then opened the drawer. Every time she moved, she rubbed against him and it was all he could do not to twist his hips, find her opening with the tip of his erection and thrust up into her. He was reciting maritime law in his head to keep from doing it and when she finally held up the condom packet, he took it from her with more exuberance than finesse. She slipped back on his lap, closer to his knees, and he reached between them to put the condom on.
Once he had it on, she looked at his erection and then back up at him. He wasn’t sure what he read in her expression, but he almost felt like she was unsure again.
Damn.
“Do you still want to do this?” he asked. His voice sounded almost guttural since he was so turned on. Stopping was going to be hard but he’d do it because he never wanted to see fear or disgust on Iris’s face.
“Yes,” she said, putting her hands on either side of his face and lowering her mouth to kiss him again. She shifted and the skirt of her dress brushed over him. He bunched it in his fist and lifted it all the way up and out of the way. She shifted around, then reached between them to position him between her legs. She opened her eyes and their gazes met as she drove herself down on him.
Damn.
She fit him so tightly, like the best kind of glove, and he wanted more. He had intended to let her set the pace, but he couldn’t. He fell back on the bed and rolled over so she was under him. She held on to his shoulders as he brought his lips down hard on hers and thrust his tongue into her mouth. She sucked it hard as he drove up into her, taking her at a pace that was faster and harder than he’d intended. His conscience made him slow down and he started to pull back but she tightened her grip on him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t stop.”
He didn’t stop. H
e just kept thrusting inside her until he heard those cries he’d heard when she’d orgasmed earlier as she came again he felt her body tightening around his. He drove himself faster and faster into her until he came in one long rush, emptying himself inside of her. He kept thrusting until he was sated and rolled to his side, pulling her into his arms and stroking her back while his heartbeat slowed.
She put her hand on his chest and then rested her head on top of it. She sighed and he lifted his head to look down at her.
“What?”
“Thanks for that. I have to be honest and tell you I wasn’t expecting...”
He waited to see what else she’d say. It was clear to him that she hadn’t enjoyed sex in the past, but he doubted she wanted to discuss that with him.
“What?” he asked again.
“You.”
She rolled to her side and sat up after saying that. Then she got off the bed and went to the bathroom. He watched her go, very aware that she wasn’t the only one who’d been caught off guard tonight.
He hadn’t been expecting her either.
Eight
Arriving on Nantucket one week later made Iris feel like she was in total vacay mode. It didn’t matter that her glam squad had gotten her ready early this morning at her place in Boston to make sure she was casual yet sophisticated or that she had fifteen minutes before she had to meet the photographer on the beach to do a photo shoot for the summer social media shares. As she stood on the balcony of her hotel suite, listening to the crashing of the waves on the beach and smelling the salty air, she felt like she could breathe.
Sleeping with Zac hadn’t been her best idea, she knew that, but damn, for the first time in her life she’d felt more than just the urge to get it over with when she’d been having sex. Zac had made her realize that something she’d thought she could live without—an active sex life—wasn’t true. She’d had no idea that the men she’d been with hadn’t been good lovers. To be fair, it could have been that she wasn’t a right fit for those men.
Her One Night Proposal (One Night Book 4) Page 7
