High (8 page)

They were leaving the VIP lounge to
board their flight when he turned to her with those laser, peace-shattering
eyes. “I apologize for this, but I’m trying to clear my schedule as much as
possible before we land in Paris. Is that okay?”

The idea that a hot, deliciously sexy
billionaire was asking her if it was okay to conduct business melted away the
trace of irritation she’d been feeling. The thought that he was clearing his
schedule just for her made her chest ache in an unfamiliar way. She reached for
her purse.

“It’s fine. Go ahead. I need to make
some calls myself.”

When he froze and raised an eyebrow,
she answered. “My parents. I promised to get in touch when I landed in
Shanghai.” She also needed to let Keely know she was deviating from her
once-in-a-lifetime experience.

As to whether Keely would root for her
or not was another situation. For all her grab-life-by-the-balls attitude,
Keely could be extremely grounded and conservative in certain situations.

She might not think Bethany was making
a mistake by accepting whatever it was Zachary Savage was offering. Then again,
she might.

Which was why Bethany chickened out and
sent her best friend a text instead of calling her after she’d finished
speaking to her parents. Although they were surprised about her abrupt change
of plan, they accepted her breezy explanation about why she’d ditched The
Indigo Lounge experience—she’d decided to join a friend in Paris and
Morocco instead of finishing her trip.

She turned her phone off and followed
Zachary Savage into first class. Noting that they were the only occupants, she
turned to him. His gaze was firmly fixed on her as he conversed in fluent
Italian and cut the connection only when a stewardess stepped forward and
showed them to their seats. Bethany accepted her glass of chilled champagne and
the chocolate truffles with a smile and tried not to look awestruck at her
luxurious surroundings.

Zach broke his conversation off long
enough for take off. “Everything went well with your phone calls?”

“My parents don’t know enough about my
trip to question why I’ve descended into madness by abandoning it. All they
want to know is that I’m safe.”

He nodded. “Your safety is guaranteed.
Never doubt that.”

There was a depth of conviction in his
tone that made her believe him. Taking a piece of chocolate, he fed it to her,
watched her mouth with hungry, intense eyes as she chewed and licked her lips.

With what seemed like monumental
effort, he finally pulled his gaze away and sat back in this chair. “Try and
get some sleep, Peaches. You’ll need your strength in the hours and days to
come.”

“Another boast, Savage?”

“A very friendly warning from a very
hungry carnivore who intends to stop only when you’re in danger of becoming
permanently bow-legged,” he said darkly. He took her almost empty glass of
champagne, set it to one side. Then he shook out the softly luxurious cashmere
throw the stewardess presented him with.

Before she could ask him what he was
doing, he pressed a button on her seat and Bethany felt the seat recline with
an almost silent whine.

When she was fully reclined, he placed
the throw over her and tucked her in. He picked up the glass and raised an
eyebrow at her.

She shook her head because she didn’t
need any more alcohol. Between the power of his words and gentleness of his
touch, her whole body was buzzing.

This man was strong, powerful, but sensitive
in a way that woke fear deep in her heart. If she wasn’t careful, he could
devastate her. And all even before he’d laid a single finger on her.

He turned back to her and sent her one
of those soul-melting smiles. Then, his earpiece back in place, he launched
into another business conversation.

She tried to read a magazine for a
while then felt her lids beginning to droop. It was as she was falling asleep,
nestled in the thick luxury of the cashmere throw that the thought intruded.

She’d never asked him what he’d meant
by
when the time is right
.

Chapter Seven

Her breath caught at the heart-stopping
sight of the Eiffel Tower. Beside her, in the luxurious cocoon of his Maybach
Laundaulet, Zachary turned to her and smiled, but there was a distance in his
eyes—the same distance she’d noted when they’d landed half an hour ago—that
made alarm tingle down her spine.

“Is this your first time in Paris?” he
asked.

“No, my parents brought me here for my
twenty-first. I promised myself I’d return one day.” She didn’t add that she’d
promised to return with the man she loved. The man she’d thought for a long
time would be Chris.

She pressed agitated hands on the soft
white leather seat and forced the thought away. They were in the city made for
lovers.

When, exactly, she and Zachary Savage
would attain that status was beginning to loom like a specter of uncertainty in
her mind. She glanced at him and noted his jaw was set harder than it had been
minutes ago.

Was he worried about his meeting? Did
the city hold memories in some way that didn’t sit well with him?

“This isn’t your first time,
obviously,” she ventured.

“No, it isn’t. But I hope after today I
can stay clear for a while.”

She frowned. “Why would you want to
stay clear?”

“I’m hoping to conclude my business
today. Then there won’t be any need to return.”

His phone pinged with yet another phone
call. The last twelve hours had shown her just how busy he was. His phone never
stopped ringing. She was stunned he’d managed to keep it off while he was
touring Shanghai with her.

This time the conversation was
conducted in low, seductive lilting French, which turned surprisingly clipped
before he hung up.

“Everything okay?” she couldn’t help
but ask. More and more she was realizing just how little she knew about him.

He turned those mesmerizing eyes on her
but when he smiled, it looked strained. “Not yet, but I’ll take care of it.
We’re here.”

Her attention was drawn from him to
their destination.

The Indigo Belle Plaza was even more
breathtaking than the Indigo Shanghai had been. This building took up a proud
and possessive corner of the Rue de Rivoli, with stunning historical architecture
steeped in every stone. It exuded wealth and class in a way very few buildings
could, from the porticoed windows to the indigo flags fluttering in the breeze alongside
French flags from what looked like solid gold masts.

Her heart hammered as she was helped
from the back seat by a starchly-uniformed doorman. Just as in Shanghai, Zach
was treated like royalty.

She watched, semi-bemused as the
manager bowed and scraped them into the elevator that took them to the
presidential suite.

They’d barely entered when Zach turned
to her. That restless distance was still in place, making her heart pound with
dread. Before she could summon the courage to ask him what was going on, he
started to back away.

“Make yourself at home. Order room
service. I will be back in a few hours.”

“O…okay.”

He started walking to the door and
stopped, then spun on his heel. “And Bethany?”

“Yes?”

Weirdly, the sight of his clenched
fists made her feel better. His gaze devoured her, frightening yet reassuring
her that he was just as surely being driven insane by the sexual charge arcing
between them as she was. In that she wasn’t alone.

“Know this. Everything changes on my
return.”

***

Everything
changes on my return
.

The words reverberated in her head as
the hours passed with excruciating slowness. She showered, she channel-hopped,
she rearranged the meager clothes she’d packed.

Then she ordered the most heavenly
burger and fries she’d ever tasted.

And still only two hours had passed.

Unable to sit still any longer, Bethany
grabbed the glossy Hotel Guide. The boutiques listed in the shopping section
had her springing up and snatching up her bag.

As she left the room, she thanked her
stars she hadn’t succumbed to Chris’s pressure to use the nest egg she’d
received from her grandparents for a deposit for a bigger apartment. Granted,
using it to splurge on underwear for her assignation with a hot, sexy
billionaire was not quite what she’d had in mind, but what the fuck, Chris-the-A-hole
had left her in no doubt that the world could turn upside down and take a dump
on her within a blink of an eye.

Go large or go home!

She bought six pairs of matching bra
and panties from the first shop. Make up with heavily accented tips on
application came from the assistant in the second shop. But it was the third
shop that took her breath away. The dresses were all in shades of indigo. Her
heart hammered as she flicked through long evening dresses and short casual but
sophisticated day wear. Touching the color that was so special to Zachary made
her feel close to him somehow.

Bethany wasn’t sure how long she was in
the shop but she began to notice the curious looks from the sales assistants.

After she was asked whether she needed
help a fifth time, she chose a short, lace dress that ended mid thigh, along
with a silk pantsuit with gold pumps and hoop earrings to match.

Exiting, she dashed in to the last
shop, a perfumery, and stocked up on her favorite scents.

The porter was waiting by the doors and
held it open for her. “I’ll take your bags, ma’am.”

She laughed. “I’m twenty-four.
Ma’am-ing me hurts my feelings. And I can carry my own bags, thanks.”

He nodded with a dignity that seemed at
variance with his immense size. He summoned the elevator, and they rode to the
penthouse in silence.

A quick glance at her watch as the elevator
slid open showed she’d been downstairs two hours. With any luck, she didn’t
have much longer to wait till Zach—

“Where the hell have you been?”

Her bags fell from her hands.

He stood there, larger than life, eyes
ablaze with hunger and…anxiety?

“You’re back,” she said stupidly, but
once again, the sheer beauty of him had rendered her brains useless. And the
fact that he’d been anxious about her sent a thrill of delight surging through
her.

Then she saw his clenched jaw and the
whitened skin around his mouth. The guy was seriously riled about something.

“I thought you’d left.”

She frowned. “Why would I leave?”

He clawed a hand through his hair. “I
didn’t intend to be away this long and when I got back and you weren’t here…I
thought you’d changed your mind. You didn’t tell Philip where you were
going—”

“Because I only went downstairs to get
a few things…”

His gaze left hers and he skimmed over
the shopping bags. But barely a second later, that unstoppable gaze was back on
her, pinning her to the spot, stopping the breath in her lungs.

He sauntered forward. This time she
noticed his fists weren’t clenched. And the look in his eyes had changed from
hungry yearning to predatory warning. “You went shopping?”

She nodded, unable to speak past the
crazy hammering of her heart.

“Philip would’ve gotten you anything
you needed.”

“I didn’t…I was going stir crazy here.
I just wanted to step out for a little while.”

He reached her, walked past her and
shut the door. The lock slid home with an ominous click that sent a shiver
through her.

She felt him behind her but his scent,
his powerful aura was all around her, reeling her in, claiming her. “You scared
the shit out of me, Bethany.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“Be that as it may, I intend to make
you pay for that. What was the last thing I said to you before I left,
Bethany?” he growled in her ear.

“You…said…everything changes on your
return?” she all but whispered.

“Yes, I did.” Warm fingers touched her
wrists and drifted up her arms in a whisper-thin caress that sent sensation
rushing through her. “I’ve waited what seems like forever for this moment. And
I come back to find you gone. Philip didn’t know where you’d gone. Do you know
what that did to me?” he whispered.

“N…no.”

“I was desperate, Bethany. I saw all
the plans I’d made going to shit.”

“You made plans?” she asked
breathlessly.

“A million. Ninety-nine per cent of
them involved the many and varied ways I was going to fuck you. If you’d run out
on me, I’d have had no choice but to hunt you down.” He laced his fingers
through hers, brought both hands behind her back. “Because walking around
another minute with this would’ve killed me.” Still holding her hands, he
placed hers directly over his cock as his teeth sank into the soft flesh of her
shoulder.

She gasped as the thick, long ridge of
his rock-hard cock filled her hands. Her fingers closed on him and his deep
moan echoed around the room. The ragged, masculine sound drenched her sex with
heat. She tightened her grip, eager to hear it again.

He hissed in her ear and clamped his
hands over hers. “Easy, baby. I haven’t prematurely blown my load in a long
time. But waiting this long to have you has driven me to the edge and it won’t
take much more to drive me over it.” He eased her hands from him and turned her
around.

Fierce heat burned in his eyes, and the
hunger stamped on his face stopped her breath. With a grunt, he pulled her
close, slid powerful hands into her hair and angled it towards him.

“What did I say about kissing you?” he
murmured, hot against her lips.

“A…a kiss for every minute we’ve been
together?”

“You remembered. Good girl.”

His mouth was hard and demanding, his
tongue a lash of pleasure that took over her senses in the blink of an eye. He
sucked, he bit,
he
cajoled her into giving him more.

Before she could take another breath,
Bethany found herself glued from breast to thigh against him. He devoured her
mouth the way he’d promised to devour her body. Liquid oozed between her
sex
as he feasted on her with a shameless desire that echoed
the one rocking through her body.

He lifted his head only when the need
to breathe became paramount. But only the barest inch, as if now he’d given
himself permission to touch, as if he couldn’t bear to be more than a
hairsbreadth away. He touched his forehead to hers.

“Oh, sweet baby. I’m going to enjoy
fucking you. I’m going to fuck you very hard for a very, very long time. And
you’re going to love every second of it.”

His hands left her hair and drifted
down her neck to her shoulders. He looked down, saw her hard, tight nipples and
growled. “And when you’re too tired to move, I’m going to suck on those pretty
tits until you beg me to fuck you all over again.”

He gripped her waist, swung her into
his arms and headed for the large sofa in the living room. The early evening
sunlight slanted into the room, casting it in a golden glow. All around them,
Zachary’s wealth and influence demanded the commensurate awe and appreciation,
but Bethany only had eyes for the stunningly gorgeous guy in front of her. The man
who licked his lips as his gaze raked her from head to toe and back again.

She let her own gaze drift over him—the
hard chest she’d felt under her hands moment ago, lifted as he breathed. And
below the belt of his trousers, the rigid erection she’d felt was outlined,
large and thick.

She went for his belt, unable to wait
one moment longer to see his cock.

The need burning through her felt
alien, raw, the anticipation almost painful.

“Bethany, wait.”

She whimpered. “No, I don’t want to
wait. I want you.
Inside me.
Right now.”

His jaw clenched and his nostrils
flared. “Shit.”

“This wasn’t part of your plan, was
it?” A sense of power fizzed through her when she noticed the visibly shaking
hand he clawed through his hair.

“I wanted to taste you all over, feast
on that sweet cunt—”

“I want that too.
But
later.
Please Zach, you’ve made us wait for two days. Don’t make me wait
any longer.”

“Bethany—Ah, fuck.”

The dress she’d worn to go shopping
downstairs was ripped from her body. Her simple cotton bra suffered the same
fate. At the first sight of her bared breasts, he froze.

“Jesus. You’re incredible.” He lowered
his head and ran his tongue over the upper slopes of her breast, both hands
cupping her and molding her as he grazed his teeth lightly over her flesh. He sucked
a nipple into his mouth and moaned deep and long in appreciation. Several long
flicks of his tongue then he moved to the other breasts and delivered the same treatment.

His moans of appreciation sent a fever
of need through her. “God, you’re so beautiful.”