Beautifully Irresistible (23 page)

I crashed out on the bed and soon fell fast asleep.

When I woke up, I could hear Zack talking to someone on his phone.

“Look Chris, I have told you before, you need to act fast whilst you can. Stop messing around and just sort it or you will be looking for another job and I’m not kidding!”

What an interesting conversation. I kept my eyes shut so he would think that I was still asleep. He lay next to me on the bed and I could tell that he was really wound up. His breathing was heavy and he was fidgeting around.

I opened my eyes and stared at his stunning profile, admiring his beautiful features. His breathing evened out.

“What are you looking at, Jennifer?” he asked, turning and looking at me with those piercing blue eyes.

He propped his head up with one hand.

“You, you are so beautiful. I love your cute dimple and your hair is gorgeous. Your eyes are stunning. You are perfect, in fact. Heaven must be missing an angel.”

How corny did that sound!

I ran my finger along his stubbly cheek and he grabbed my hand and kissed it.

“You are sweet but I hate my dimple. I got teased at school about it. I am far from perfect, my nose is crooked and my forehead is too high. Also if my hair grows too long, it is curly!”

“Whatever. You could easily be a model. You are breathtakingly gorgeous, inside and out.”

He looked away from me, blushing.

“You are the beautiful one, Jennifer. Your face is stunning and I love your gorgeous big brown eyes. I get lost in them. They are the first thing I noticed about you other than your rocking body that is! Before we made love for the first time, I fantasied about it constantly.”

“Me too, it was pretty exhausting but boy was it worth the wait!”

“I couldn’t think of anything else and my work was suffering. When we actually made love for the first time, it was far better than I had ever imagined.”

He flushed as he looked into my eyes.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you either. You turn me on more than anyone I have ever met and I really wanted you to sweep me off my feet and then you did.”

I took his face into my hands and kissed him lovingly again and again.

After a luxurious shower, I changed into a slinky red dress and high heels. Zack was dressed in a beautifully-tailored dark grey suit. His red tie complemented my dress.

“You look beautiful, Jennifer. Red really is your colour. It brings out your gorgeous eyes.”

“You smooth talker. You look very dapper in your suit. Good enough to eat!”

“I have booked a table in a small intimate restaurant around the corner. I hope you are hungry.”

“I’m starving!”

We headed to the lift and in the foyer, heads turned to admire Zack whilst I held on to his arm.

The restaurant was only a five minute walk away. It was beautiful and very expensive looking. Zack ordered some champagne but I couldn’t go too mad as I was taking a lot of painkillers.

We both ordered oysters for our starters but I didn’t think we needed any help in that department. I decided on a peppered steak for main course and Zack followed suit.

The champagne was delicious and I started to feel quite light-headed.

“Are you okay, Jennifer?”

I quickly gulped some water down.

“I’m fine. I just need to have some water to dilute the champagne. I’m not usually this much of a lightweight. It must be the drugs. My Northern heritage makes me able to handle my drink!”

“Ha! Take it easy then.”

The meal was delicious and Zack suggested going to a small jazz and blues club next door. We climbed down the steps and luckily found a table in the packed club.

Zack headed off to the bar to get us some drinks. Whilst he was gone, I noticed a tall handsome man leaning on the bar looking intently at me. He started to walk over to me.

“Good evening. I’m Alex. What’s your name?”

“Jennifer,” I told him cautiously.

He had thick dark hair and really big dark brown eyes. His chin sported stubble and he was certainly a head turner. Unusually, he stared at my breasts.

“You are certainly beautiful.”

“Thank you but I am with my partner. He will be back in a minute.”

“I’m only talking to you. Surely he’s not that insecure.”

“You seem to be hitting on me.”

“So what if I am? Would you like to dance?”

“No thanks,” I replied, seeing Zack standing behind him.

“What do you want?” Zack shouted in his face looking down at him.

“Hello, Zack, long time no see.”

“I have got nothing to say to you, Alex.”

Clearly there was no love lost between them.

“I must say, your lady friend is stunning. I bet she is a right goer!”

“Just fuck off, Alex, before I do something I might regret!”

“Mind you, Phoebe was a great lay, wasn’t she, Zack! A right whore in the bedroom or anywhere for that matter!”

Before I knew what was happening, Zack had punched him square in the jaw. Alex went down taking the contents of the table with him. A burly security man came over and grabbed Zack.

“Take your dirty hands off me!” he shouted, pushing him away.

He looked livid.

“Zack, let’s just go.”

I grabbed his hand and we made our way up the stairs. I turned around, realising that Alex was right behind us. His lip was bleeding.

“Wait there, you bastard!” he shouted.

I thought he should walk away now. Zack turned around to face him. His eyes were blazing.

“I told you to leave me alone!”

We burst out of the doors and Alex lunged at him but Zack side-stepped and Alex ended up in a heap on the ground. He got up quite quickly and managed to briefly make contact with Zack’s face but Zack was much too quick for him and punched him square on the jaw.

Alex went down again as a crowd gathered around the impromptu boxing match. A police siren wailed in the distance.

This kind of publicity was not what Zack needed right now.

“Zack, leave him. You have shown him. Let’s go.”

I grabbed his arm but he turned and looked at me. It was like he didn’t see me. His face contorted in pure anger. He roughly shrugged me off and I moved away, feeling frightened of him. Alex took another blow this time to his stomach as Zack continued his assault. His hair hung into his face as sweat ran down his cheeks.

“Zack, stop! Please listen to me!” I screamed.

He looked round at me and the green mist seemed to lift.

“Let’s go back to the hotel. Please,” I pleaded with him.

“I’m so sorry, Jennifer,” he said as tears filled his beautiful eyes.

My heart was breaking for him as I had never seen him so upset. Alex was lying on the ground in a ball, looking pathetic. We side-stepped past him and returned to the hotel.

Once we were back in the room, Zack was back to his normal self.

“What the hell happened back there?”

“Alex is one of Phoebe’s many exes. She had a six month affair with him and he has taunted me about it relentlessly. I’m sorry you had to see that, Jennifer.”

“It’s okay. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

I filled the sink and soaked a soft flannel. He had a small cut to his left eye and I gently dabbed the wound. Zack winced as I cleaned the cut.

“I will tell you one thing, Zack, you can really fight!” I smiled at him, trying to lift his mood.

“That’s what growing up with three brothers does for you! We all used to box regularly at a small club down town. A lot of boys used to try and take us on. They usually failed when we kicked their asses!”

“Are they as handsome as you? I bet you look gorgeous all together!”

“Well, Sam is the oldest, then me, then Jake and Harvey is the baby of the family. I wouldn’t leave you on your own with Jake though, he’s a right man whore!”

“I would love to meet all your family sometime.”

“I will take you soon, sweet Jennifer. Here I have a picture on my phone of when we went last time.”

He showed me the picture of him and his brothers. They all looked gorgeous. I bet they were popular at school!

“I’m beat. Let’s go to bed, boss.”

“I’m sorry about tonight, Jennifer.”

“It’s okay, Zack. Don’t worry about it but I didn’t realise that you had such a temper. You frightened me.”

“I would never, ever, hurt you, baby.”

“I know you wouldn’t. I trust you.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let him goad me like that.”

“Make love not war.”

“What a wonderful idea, JB.”

“Don't forget you will have to suit up, Mr Cole!”

“I know!” he told me, getting up to find a condom.

After a very refreshing sleep with my beautiful man next to me, I awoke and checked out the lovely view. I made some coffee and left Zack sleeping. He didn’t even snore.

My text alert beeped quietly and it was a message from Ross.

“Do you have any developments to report, Black?”

I decided to nip out onto the balcony and give him a quick ring.

“I can't speak long but I saw someone in the woods when we were flying overhead. Hopefully I will find where they were on my return.”

“Flying overhead? Where are you?”

“Paris. We flew over in his plane.”

“Jesus, you are having it rough, Black!”

“I know but I am recovering, Sir.”

“Okay but don’t have too much fun. Speak to you soon.”

I decided to try and find out Alex’s surname as he could be in the suspect pool. There was something amiss about him.

As I went back into the room, Zack woke up and smiled at me.

My tummy did a little flip as I smiled back.

“Good morning, gorgeous.”

I took his coffee over and checked the cut on his eye.

“I think you will live. It doesn’t look too bad,” I told him, kissing it better.

“You should have been a nurse but I think you would drive the male patients wild!”

“Ha! That’s very funny, Mr Cole!”

“What do you fancy doing today?”

“All the tourist stuff would be great. The last time I went up the Eiffel Tower, I had loads of cheap plonk in my bag that I was hiding from the teachers on our school trip. Happy days!”

“You are a naughty girl, Jennifer.”

After a lengthy breakfast in bed, we left the hotel and started to visit the tourist haunts of Paris. It was a beautiful day and lovers strolled along hand in hand, enjoying the atmosphere of the world’s most romantic city.

We visited Notre Dame, The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

The day literally flew by and when we returned to the hotel, Zack suggested a refreshing swim. We gathered up our swimwear and headed down to the pool and gym.

After a few lengths of the stunning pool, we clambered out and got into the hot tub. The place was deserted and we were pleased that we had it to ourselves.

We laughed as the bubbles exploded around us as we started kissing like a pair of teenagers. Zack pulled back and grinned.

“You make me so happy, Jennifer. I have fallen for you hook, line and sinker!”

“Me too. I wanted to tell you ages ago how much I loved you but I was scared that you didn’t feel the same way about me.”

“You are kidding me! I loved you from the moment that you stood in front of me on my doorstep. I was practically sitting on my hands! I wanted to kiss you and ravish you!” he whispered, laughing softly.

“Ooh, how very Mr Darcy of you!”

“Kiss me, Jennifer.”

I pulled him closer into me and lavished him with sweet kisses.

What a wonderful trip it had been.

Chapter Twenty Six

The following morning, we quickly packed up our things and Zack called for the car to take us back to the airfield.

We had enjoyed room service last night as we wanted to spend time with each other with no one else around.

It was amazing.

“Have you enjoyed yourself?”

“I have had a wonderful time, Zack. It was just what I needed.”

“I have really enjoyed myself too, baby.”

Our car pulled smoothly in front of the hotel.

“Well, isn’t this sweet?”

The voice was annoyingly familiar.

We both turned round and saw Alex standing there. He looked a right state with a black eye, a broken nose and a bust lip. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had had a couple of broken ribs after Zack’s aka Rocky’s pummelling.

“Go away, you idiot,” Zack snapped at him.

His anger started to bubble up.