If You Were Mine (17 page)

over the leather chair in one corner.

“So,” she said when she slowly turned back to him, “are

you ready to do this, or what?”

His dark gaze heated up, causing ripples of electricity to

move across her skin with nothing more than one look. “There

somewhere you need to be?”

God no, she wasn’t planning on leaving any-time soon.

Heck, she could barely remember the rest of the world existed

Heck, she could barely remember the rest of the world existed

when she was with him. But boy, would there be trouble if he

ever realized that.

His beautiful mouth moved up into a smal grin just before

he added, “Or are you just in that much of hurry to finaly have

me?”

“Just ready to be impressed with your patented moves

before my next birthday rols around.”

Any other man would have acted like she’d just caled his

entire masculinity into question, but not Zach. Instead, he simply

continued to grin that way-too-gorgeous grin.

“Box number two it is,” he said as he made a smal check

mark in the air. “You can’t wait another second to have me.”

Heather would have made it a point to contradict that

ridiculously arrogant—and patheticaly true—assumption, had it

not been for the soft click of Zach closing his door to keep the

dogs out of the bedroom. The bedroom lights went off a beat

later.

She heard her swift intake of breath as his bedroom went

immediately dark. Despite the large windows, the moon was

hidden behind a thick layer of fog tonight and her heartbeat

ratcheted up even higher.

She’d never much cared for the dark, had never seen the

romance, the sexiness, in having the control of her eyesight taken

away. Not when it felt like it took away her choices, too. One of

her lovers a few years back had wanted to blindfold her, but she

hadn’t been even the slightest bit interested.

She worked to fight back her innate panic as she said,

She worked to fight back her innate panic as she said,

“What are you doing?”

Heather couldn’t see Zach in his bedroom, but she could

hear him moving slowly toward her from the doorway.

“Getting ready to impress you.”

Why did his voice sound even deeper than usual in the

dark...and why couldn’t she stop herself from holding her breath

as he came closer and closer?

She’d spent so long in control that even the few moments

of standing in an unfamiliar room waiting for Zach to kiss her,

touch her, were too long.

She couldn’t keep the slight tremble out of her voice as she

said, “Zach, I don—”

Before she could finish admitting to weakness, he was there

with his hands on either side of her face, touching her so gently

she could hardly believe it was the same man who’d practicaly

been born with a wrench in his hands.

The pads of his thumbs stroked over her lips, whisper soft,

and she instinctively opened for him to lick at the tip of one

finger. His low groan rumbled through the room, the only sound

apart from her breathing.

She was panting even though she was standing perfectly

stil, but there didn’t seem to be any way to get her breath back

when Zach was sliding his hands slowly down from her

cheekbones to her neck. She wanted to arch into his hands, but

even though his touch was barely skimming the surface of her

skin, it was as if he was holding her completely captive.

“Such soft skin,” he murmured, and she wanted to feel the

“Such soft skin,” he murmured, and she wanted to feel the

almost reverent words against her lips, wanted desperately for

him to kiss her.

She’d always been an equal opportunity lover, never

believed in waiting for a man to make the first move, never

hoped for the chance of pleasure if she could act to take it for

herself. But that was sex.

This was seduction.

One she’d never seen coming.

Because how could she have predicted the feel of his

caloused hands lighting every inch of her skin on fire so slowly,

so sweetly, that she was barely aware of them working on the

few smal buttons at the top of her long-sleeved shirt so that he

could more easily pul it over her head?

And how could she have known that he’d smel even better

up close in the dark, a clean al-male scent that had her senses

racing to drink it in.

“From the way you talk about the lines and curves of your

cars—”

He made his way from one button to the next without so

much as grazing her breasts. She’d known he loved to tease, but

she hadn’t realized that trait would transfer over to the bedroom,

too.

“—I thought you’d want to see everything.”

It was too dark for her to see more than the faint outline of

his shape, but she swore she could feel his smile. “You’re right, I

do like looking at pretty things,” he confirmed softly as he moved

do like looking at pretty things,” he confirmed softly as he moved

to the hem of her shirt and puled it up over her head to let it fal

to the ground behind her. “Good thing I have great night vision.”

“I can barely drive in the dark,” she said, knowing she was

babbling now, but standing there in only her bra and shorts had

her nerves bubbling up al over again.

This time she didn’t have to guess if he was smiling, she

could hear it in his low chuckle. The warmth of his laughter

washed over her the way it always did and helped settle her

down some.

For al the times he had irritated or frustrated her, the truth

was she’d always liked being with him. More than she could

ever remember enjoying being with a man, which was precisely

why she’d made sure they didn’t end up in his bedroom before

now. Not without a list of rules and regulations about what was

alowable.

Great sex was obviously on the menu. Emotional

entanglement wasn’t.

But where, she had to wonder, did seduction fal?

Only, as Zach’s hands spanned her waist before moving to

stroke over the taut muscles of her back, she couldn’t hold onto

the question.

All she could do was feel.

And, oh, how wonderful was it to have strong hands on

her, working deep to relax parts of her that had been tight for so

long she hadn’t even been aware they were tense.

“You feel so good, Heather. Just the way I knew you

would.”

would.”

She could hear the honest appreciation in his voice, knew it

didn’t matter if he’d said the same things to a hundred women

before her. Al that mattered was that he was saying it to
her

now.

He moved his hands up to her shoulder blades and found a

knot that had her almost whimpering as he pressed into it with

absolutely zero mercy.

“You don’t take good enough care of yourself,” he

admonished in that low voice that made her insides turn to liquid.

“You work too hard. And that big mutt of yours is always

yanking you around.” He gently spun her around so that her

back was to his front and he could dig harder into her shoulders.

“He needs to be more careful with you.”

Despite the fact that his massage was turning her to mush,

she had to remind him again, “He’s not a mutt, he’s a purebred.”

“Funny,” Zach said as he slid her hair over one shoulder,

close enough now that she could feel his warm breath on her

exposed neck, “he always answers to
mutt
. You sure his papers

weren’t forged?”

She stil couldn’t believe the way her dog had taken to

Zach, considering his basic distrust of al men. Then again,

animals had a gift for seeing beneath the surface to people’s true

natures. They knew how to read a false smile for evil, a

seemingly innocuous touch as a dangerous threat...or,

conversely, that a man who acted like an island was capable of

such warmth and enough sweetness to take her breath away

again and again.

again and again.

Before she realized it, he had the clasp of her bra undone

and was working it off her shoulders so that it was faling to the

floor to join her shirt. Even in the dark, she wanted to cover up,

wanted to lift her hands over her breasts, though she’d already

consented to sleep with Zach.

“Am I making you nervous?” he asked, his lips nearly at her

earlobe now as he moved closer stil to her now half-naked

body.

“No.” And it was true. She wasn’t scared.

She was excited.

Beyond
excited.

At long last, he pressed his mouth to her skin, brushing his

lips against her earlobe, his tongue barely making contact before

he asked, “Then why are you trembling?”

“I have sensitive ears,” she told him.

“Good to know.” He pressed another soft kiss just below

her earlobe this time, before saying, “Anywhere else I should

know about that’s sensitive?”

Oh God.

Until now, she’d felt like she’d been able to pit herself

against Zach Sulivan as an equal. But that was before they’d

entered his bedroom...where she quite clearly didn’t stand a

chance of being anything but putty in his big, strong, al-knowing

hands.

Stil, she had to keep trying to stay toe-to-toe with him,

didn’t she? Otherwise, how would she possibly be able to

respect herself in the morning?

“Maybe we should turn the lights back on and I’l draw you

a map.”

“Such a sassy mouth,” he murmured. “Makes me think I

should put it to better use.”

It should have been enough warning for her to brace herself

for his kiss, but when he slid one hand into her hair and turned

her face so that he could reach her mouth with his, she couldn’t

do anything but gasp at the extreme pleasure of having his mouth

on hers again.

For how gentle his hands had been—and stil were—the

wildness of his kiss told her a different story.

He wanted her. Badly. And as his tongue thrust against

hers, she was glad to be able to finaly unleash al the passion, the

desire, she’d been holding in check since the first moment she’d

met him.

She tried to turn into his arms, wanted to press her bare

chest up against his, wanted to know if he was as hard, as hot,

as she’d dreamt he would be. But instead of letting her move

against him, he slid one hand around her waist and held her

against him like that, back to front. And, strangely, instead of

wanting to fight his hold, instead of feeling like he was controling

her, she felt the exact opposite.

Felt the comfort, the safety of knowing he wasn’t going to

let her fal. And accepted, in this one instance at least, that he

knew precisely how to lead them both straight to pure pleasure.

Her shorts were faling to her feet before she even realized

Her shorts were faling to her feet before she even realized

he’d undone the button and zipper. Shocked by how easy it was

to get lost in his kisses, she puled her mouth from his.

As if he could guess at her skittishness, rather than claiming

her lips again, he ran soft kisses over her cheek and then her

neck and shoulders. Her skin came alive inch by inch—a path of

sensation, of pleasure.

And yet, she stil couldn’t let go of that hit of fear, the worry

that she was alowing herself to get lost in someone else, until

Zach’s voice broke through.

“Are you sensitive here?” He brushed his thumb up at the

top of her spine until it reached her hairline, and she shivered in

response. “I’l take that as a yes,” he said softly as he folowed

that same path with his tongue. “What about this spot?” His

fingers found the smal of her back, and the next thing she knew,

he was kneeling behind her, his mouth barely a beat behind as his

tongue licked over the incredibly sensitive skin.

When she couldn’t stop the breath from whooshing from

her lungs, he said, “Definitely yes.”

And then, just as she was trying to process the startling fact

that he was indeed making a map of the sensitive places on her

body, she felt his large hands come around either side of her rib

cage, just beneath the lower swel of her breasts.

“I’m going to take a guess that this one is going to be a yes,

too,” he said against her left side as his tongue traced between

two ribs and she shuddered against him, her knees nearly

buckling at the sweet pleasure of being touched like this.

Like she was al that mattered.

Like she was al that mattered.

Like he actualy thought she was precious and worth the

time it would take to explore her pleasure, to learn where it hid